\ Why choose the Noble Neighborhood?

You Take the Embryos but I Get the House
(and the Business): Recent Trends in Awards
Involving Embryos upon Divorce
MARK P. STRASSER†
INTRODUCTION
More and more couples are delaying starting a family. 1
Because fertility declines with age, 2 delaying childbirth
increases the likelihood that couples will have to make use
of assisted reproductive technologies such as in vitro
fertilization (“IVF”) to fulfill their hopes of having children
biologically related to at least one of them. As might be
expected in a country with a relatively high divorce rate, the
increased use of IVF 3 has led and will continue to lead to
more and more couples having to decide what to do with
remaining frozen embryos upon dissolution of their
marriages. 4
† Trustees Professor of Law, Capital University Law School, Columbus, Ohio. I
would like to thank Professor Angela Upchurch for her helpful discussions of
these and related issues.
1. See, e.g., Maxine Eichner, Dependency and the Liberal Polity: On Martha
Fineman’s The Autonomy Myth, 93 CAL. L. REV. 1285, 1319 n.142 (2005) (book
review) (“Many use contraception to limit the size of their families, and many
delay or forgo childbearing because of a lack of resources, a reluctance to make
tradeoffs, or concerns about giving their children the right start in life.”); Fotini
Antonia Skouvakis, Comment, Defining the Undefined: Using a Best Interests
Approach to Decide the Fate of Cryopreserved Preembryos in Pennsylvania, 109
PENN ST. L. REV. 885, 885 (2005) (“Currently, 14% of couples in the United
States are facing problems with infertility. Because many women are opting to
postpone motherhood, this number is increasing.”).
2. Jessica L. Hawkins, Note, Separating Fact from Fiction: Mandated
Insurance Coverage of Infertility Treatments, 23 WASH. U. J.L. & POL’Y 203,
206 (2007) (“Fertility . . . decreases with age.”).
3. See Mary Patricia Byrn, From Right to Wrong: A Critique of the 2000
Uniform Parentage Act, 16 UCLA WOMEN’S L.J. 163, 175 (2007) (“[There is a]
dramatic increase in the success rate and decrease in the cost
has led to a significant rise in the demand for IVF treatments.”).
4. Cf. Judith F. Daar, Frozen Embryo Disputes Revisited: A Trilogy of
Procreation-Avoidance Approaches, 29 J.L. MED. & ETHICS 197, 197 (2001) (“But
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While some divorcing couples have little or no difficulty
in deciding who should control the disposition of their
cryogenically preserved embryos, others must rely on the
courts to determine who will have final say over how or
whether those embryos will be used. State courts have
suggested a variety of ways to resolve such conflicts,
ranging from enforcement of prior agreements to balancing
the needs and desires of the parties to requiring
contemporaneous consent before implantation can take
place. Regrettably, because the courts analyzing these
issues tend not to give adequate weight to how related
family law issues are resolved and because the courts have
not adequately considered some of the practical implications
of their positions, both the reasoning and the results in
these cases are all too often anomalous.
Part I of this article discusses Davis v. Davis 5 and Kass
v. Kass, 6 in which the highest courts of Tennessee and New
York respectively stated that initial agreements regarding
the disposition of frozen embryos are enforceable. These
cases illustrate the possible heartbreak that can be caused
either when couples fail to make agreements regarding the
disposition of their frozen embryos or when they make
agreements without carefully considering the possible
difficulties that might have to be confronted in the future.
Part II discusses some of the subsequent decisions in which
state courts have made clear that frozen embryos cannot be
with over 100,000 embryos in frozen storage in the United States and a divorce
rate of 40 to 50 percent, it is not surprising that disputes over the disposition of
these embryos are arising, causing the legal landscape surrounding these
technologies to continue to expand.” (footnotes omitted)); Note, Developing a
Legal Framework for Resolving Disputes Between “Adoptive Parents” of Frozen
Embryos: A Comparison to Resolutions of Divorce Disputes between Progenitors,
49 B.C. L. REV. 529, 532 (2008) [hereinafter Note, Developing a Legal
Framework] (“The combination of the increasing use of embryo donation and a
divorce rate in our country as high as fifty percent makes it likely that a divorce
between a couple who has received or ‘adopted’ frozen embryos could occur and
eventually be litigated.”); Note, The Uncertainty of Embryo Disposition Law:
How Alterations to Roe Could Change Everything, 40 SUFFOLK U. L. REV. 485,
486 (2007) [hereinafter Note, The Uncertainty of Embryo Disposition Law] (“The
increased use of IVF in conjunction with this high divorce rate will likely result
in increased litigation regarding the disposition of excess cryogenically
preserved embryos.”).
5. 842 S.W.2d 588 (Tenn. 1992).
6. 696 N.E.2d 174 (N.Y. 1998).
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used if one of the progenitors objects, initial agreement to
the contrary notwithstanding. These decisions not only
reflect a preference against implantation but also create the
opportunity to game the system at one of the worst possible
times. Part III discusses two recent intermediate appellate
decisions in which the courts seem to revert to the earlier
Davis-Kass model whereby initial agreements are
enforceable. The Article concludes that while the judicial
enforcement of initial IVF agreements has its own
difficulties, these pale in comparison to the difficulties posed
by some of the competing approaches.
I. CONTRACT ENFORCEMENT
Two opinions issued by the high courts of Tennessee
and New York dealing with the disposition of frozen
embryos indicate that agreements made at the time the
couple enters into an IVF program are enforceable. Where
no prior agreement has been made, however, a number of
factors might be considered, including the benefits conferred
and burdens imposed on the respective parties should the
frozen embryos be implanted and lead to a live birth. These
cases adopt a model that provides guidance to the parties
and the courts, and makes clear that the failure to give
careful consideration to future possibilities might result in
severe disappointment.
A. Davis
The seminal case in this area is Davis v. Davis, 7 in
which the Tennessee Supreme Court was asked to decide
which member of a divorcing couple should control the
disposition of the frozen embryos 8 the couple had created. 9
Initially, Mary Sue wanted the embryos for her own postdivorce use, but Junior objected because of his ambivalence
about becoming a non-marital parent. 10 Later, she changed
7. 842 S.W.2d 588.
8. The Davis court frequently but not exclusively used the term “embryo”
after noting that “[t]here was much dispute at trial about whether the four-to
eight-cell entities in this case should properly be referred to as ‘embryos’ or as
‘preembryos,’ with resulting differences in legal analysis.” Id. at 593.
9. Id. at 589.
10. Id.
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her mind. She did not want to use the embryos herself but,
instead, wanted to donate them to a childless couple. 11
Junior adamantly opposed the donation, preferring instead
that the embryos be discarded. 12
A factor that could have played an important role in the
resolution of this conflict would have been any initial
agreement regarding the control of the embryos in the event
of divorce. Regrettably, the Davises never reached such an
agreement. 13 Indeed, it is not even clear that post-divorce
control of the embryos was ever discussed. 14
The Tennessee Supreme Court was faced with a
difficult decision, which was made even more difficult by the
lack of statutory authority or case law to serve as a guide. 15
When analyzing whose wishes should control, the Davis
court suggested that the first matter to be decided was the
status of the embryo—was it a person or property? 16
Presumably, this was important, at least in part, because of
Junior’s announced desire to discard the embryos. If the
embryos were legal persons, the conditions under which
they could be discarded would be rather limited. 17
While recognizing that embryos “are accorded more
respect than mere human cells because of their burgeoning
potential for life,” 18 the Davis court rejected that embryos
should be classified as persons. After all, the court noted,
“even after viability, they are not given legal status
equivalent to that of a person already born.” 19 Because
“abortion may be chosen to save the life of the mother,” 20 the
11. Id. at 590.
12. See id.
13. See id.
14. See id. at 592.
15. See id. at 590.
16. Id. at 594.
17. For example, Louisiana imposes limitations on the destruction of
embryos. See LA. REV. STAT. ANN. § 9:129 (2000) (“A viable in vitro fertilized
human ovum is a juridical person which shall not be intentionally destroyed by
any natural or other juridical person or through the actions of any other such
person.”).
18. Davis, 842 S.W.2d at 595.
19. Id.
20. Id.
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court implied that Tennessee law did not treat the fetus as a
person.
Yet, abortion jurisprudence may be much less helpful
than first appears when seeking to determine the legal
protections owed to frozen embryos. While the Davis court
was correct that the United States Supreme Court held in
Roe v. Wade 21 that the fetus is not a person for Fourteenth
Amendment purposes 22 in the context of a challenge to the
constitutionality of a Texas abortion prohibition, 23 such a
holding does not settle the status of a fetus or embryo
outside of the abortion context. 24 As the Davis court
recognized, 25 Louisiana accords special protection to
embryos by statute. 26 However, if a sister state can offer
embryos significant protections, abortion guarantees
21. 410 U.S. 113 (1973).
22. Id. at 158.
23. See id. at 116.
24. See, e.g., Diane K. Yang, What’s Mine is Mine, but What’s Yours Should
also Be Mine: An Analysis of State Statutes that Mandate the Implantation of
Frozen Preembryos, 10 J.L. & POL’Y 587, 619 (2002) (“Under current caselaw,
states can define preembryos and fetuses as persons with protective rights so
long as their interpretation does not interfere with a woman’s bodily integrity.”).
25. The Davis court wrote:
A Louisiana statute entitled “Human Embryos,” among other things,
forbids the intentional destruction of a cryopreserved IVF embryo and
declares that disputes between parties should be resolved in the “best
interest” of the embryo. 1986 La. Acts R.S. 9:121 et seq. Under the
Louisiana statute, unwanted embryos must be made available for
“adoptive implantation.”
842 S.W.2d at 590 n.1; see also LA. REV. STAT. ANN. § 9:131 (2000) (“In disputes
arising between any parties regarding the in vitro fertilized ovum, the judicial
standard for resolving such disputes is to be in the best interest of the in vitro
fertilized ovum.”).
26. See LA. REV. STAT. ANN. § 9:129 (2000), which states:
A viable in vitro fertilized human ovum is a juridical person which shall
not be intentionally destroyed by any natural or other juridical person
or through the actions of any other such person. An in vitro fertilized
human ovum that fails to develop further over a thirty-six hour period
except when the embryo is in a state of cryopreservation, is considered
non-viable and is not considered a juridical person.
Id.
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notwithstanding, 27 then Tennessee’s protections for frozen
embryos might be significant as well.
There are at least two distinct difficulties posed by
analyzing the status of frozen embryos in light of abortion
jurisprudence. First, the potential conflict between a
pregnant woman and an embryo or fetus developing inside
of her simply is not at issue when the focus of concern
involves who should have control over the disposition of
frozen embryos. Because the bodily autonomy of a woman is
not impacted by frozen embryos existing outside of her, 28 it
is not at all clear that abortion jurisprudence has much to
say about the status of frozen embryos.
Second, personhood might be conferred as a matter of
constitutional or statutory law. While the Fourteenth
Amendment to the United States Constitution does not
accord personhood to the fetus or embryo, 29 an entirely
separate question is whether a state law (or state
constitution) accords such a status to an embryo or fetus,
especially if the conferral of that status would not impinge
on existing abortion rights.
Ironically, the Davis court noted that Tennessee law
provides that “an attack or homicide of a viable fetus may
be a crime but abortion is not,” 30 apparently believing that
the State’s not making abortion a crime establishes that
fetuses “are not given legal status equivalent to that of a
person already born.” 31 But an equally if not more plausible
reading of Tennessee law would be that the viable fetus is
27. But see Jennifer P. Brown, Comment, “Unwanted, Anonymous, Biological
Descendants:” Mandatory Donation Laws and Laws Prohibiting Preembryo
Discard Violate the Constitutional Right to Privacy, 28 U.S.F. L. REV. 183,
186 (1993) (“This Comment concludes that regulations prohibiting the discard of
preembryos violate the biological donors’ right to procreative liberty and, absent
a compelling state interest, are unconstitutional.”).
28. See Kass v. Kass, 696 N.E.2d 174, 177 (N.Y. 1998) (“[A] woman’s right to
privacy and bodily integrity are not implicated before implantation occurs.”);
Davis, 842 S.W.2d at 601 (“None of the concerns about a woman’s bodily
integrity that have previously precluded men from controlling abortion decisions
is applicable here.”).
29. See Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, 158 (1973) (“[T]he word ‘person,’ as used
in the Fourteenth Amendment, does not include the unborn.”).
30. Davis, 842 S.W.2d at 595 (quoting Davis v. Davis, 1990 WL 130807, at *2
(Tenn. Ct. App. Sept. 13, 1990)).
31. Id.
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accorded personhood to the extent that doing so would not
compromise abortion rights.
That said, embryos and viable fetuses are not
equivalent, 32 and it may well be that the status of
personhood is not afforded to embryos either by Tennessee
statute or by the Tennessee Constitution. 33 However, such a
conclusion could only be reached after doing further
analysis and cannot be justified simply by pointing to the
State’s failure to criminalize something such as abortion
that the Federal Constitution protects.
The Davis court not only rejected that embryos are
persons, but also rejected that they are property. 34 Instead,
they “occupy an interim category that entitles them to
special respect because of their potential for human life.” 35
The Davises’ interest in the embryos was “not a true
property interest,” 36 although Junior and Mary Sue did
“have an interest in the nature of ownership, to the extent
that they have decision-making authority concerning
disposition of the preembryos, within the scope of policy set
by law.” 37 Ultimately, the court suggested that Junior could
not be forced to become a father against his will, especially
given Mary Sue’s wish to donate the embryos to a needy
couple rather than use them herself. 38
The Davis court characterized the status of the embryo
as one of the “fundamental issues” 39 of the case and offered
an extensive discussion of how the embryo should be
32. See Roe, 410 U.S. at 163 (“With respect to the State’s important and
legitimate interest in potential life, the ‘compelling’ point is at viability. This is
so because the fetus then presumably has the capability of meaningful life
outside the mother’s womb.”).
33. Cf. Davis, 842 S.W.2d at 602 (discussing Tennessee’s public policy and
constitutional law regarding “potential human life”).
34. See id. at 597.
35. Id.
36. Id.
37. Id.
38. See id. at 604 (“[I]f the party seeking control of the preembryos intends
merely to donate them to another couple, the objecting party obviously has the
greater interest and should prevail.”).
39. Id. at 594.
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classified. 40 Yet, the court’s emphasis on the importance of
that issue was somewhat misleading, because the status of
the embryo played a relatively minor role in the analysis.
Certainly, it might be claimed, the court’s holding that
the embryos were persons might 41 have prevented both
Junior and the fertility clinic from disposing of the
embryos. 42 However, it should not be thought that the
court’s finding that embryos were persons would have led to
implantation and, eventually, a live birth. Even if the court
had made a finding of personhood, the court might not have
given Mary Sue custody of the embryos, given Junior’s
initial position that he did not want the embryos implanted
until he was comfortable bringing children into the world
and his further claim that were the embryos successfully
implanted he would seek custody of any children produced. 43
Rather, the more likely result would have been that the
court would have ordered that the embryos remain frozen
until the Davises could agree about their use. Thus, the
court might have reasoned that while the embryos could not
be destroyed because they were persons, there was no
immediate duty to implant them, especially because a
custody battle would likely take place were the
implantation to result in the birth of a child.
The intermediate appellate court suggested that the
embryos were property, 44 but nonetheless held that they had
to remain frozen until the Davises could agree about their
use. 45 Yet, if a court could find that the embryos had to
remain frozen until both of the Davises could agree about
their disposition whether the embryos were classified as
persons or property, then a court presumably could reach
that same conclusion were the embryos classified as a
40. See id. at 594-97.
41. But see infra notes 50-53 and accompanying text (noting that the embryos
might not have been viable when the Tennessee court issued its opinion).
42. The Davis court authorized the clinic to dispose of the embryos. See 842
S.W.2d at 605 (“[T]he Knoxville Fertility Clinic is free to follow its normal
procedure in dealing with unused preembryos, as long as that procedure is not
in conflict with this opinion.”).
43. See id. at 604.
44. See id. at 596.
45. See id. at 598.
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special kind of property or, perhaps, as occupying some
interim category.
To make matters even more confusing, one might
imagine a different court awarding some or all of the
embryos to Mary Sue whether they were characterized as
persons or property. Suppose that the embryos were
characterized as persons. A court might reason that keeping
the embryos frozen would in effect be denying them the
opportunity of developing. Arguably, because a parent
might have her children taken away from her were she
denying them the opportunity to develop and instead were
treating them in a way that would result in their
destruction, 46 a parent who was denying the embryos the
opportunity to develop could have them taken away from
her. 47 Thus, a court might have held that the embryos had
to be awarded to Mary Sue or her designate, since this
would be the only way that the embryos might eventually
flourish.
Suppose, instead, that the embryos were treated as
some kind of property or, perhaps, as occupying a special
category. In that event, the court might find that they
should be split between the Davises. Indeed, were the
embryos treated as unique and nonfungible, it would seem
especially important that Mary Sue be awarded at least
some of them. Thus, because the value of the embryos might
well not be captured by assigning a particular dollar
amount to them, the best way to account for their special
nature might seem to be to allow each parent to have at
least some of them. 48
The claim here is not that the Davis court was wrong to
refuse to award the embryos to Mary Sue so that they could
be donated to another couple, but merely that the status of
the embryos did little work. Indeed, the status of the
46. See, e.g., In re Jayde M., 827 N.Y.S.2d 786, 787-88 (App. Div. 2007)
(upholding termination of parental rights where home had been unsafe and
children had been neglected).
47. Cf. Davis, 842 S.W.2d at 598 (noting that the appellate court had in effect
given Junior the power to assure that the embryos would be discarded).
48. Cf. I. Glenn Cohen, The Right Not to Be a Genetic Parent?, 81 S. CAL. L.
REV. 1115, 1186 (2008) (“Contracts relating to frozen preembryos seem like the
paradigmatic case where specific performance is appropriate. These contracts
cover unique subject matter, [and] they do not represent a case where it will be
difficult to determine if the contract has been performed . . . .”).
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embryos might do even less work now, given some of the
technological advances that have recently been made.
At the time that Davis was decided, frozen embryos
could not remain viable indefinitely―after two years, 49 the
likelihood that the embryos could be thawed, implanted,
and lead to a live birth was very low. When one considers
that the embryos at issue in Davis were about three-and-ahalf to four years old, 50 it seems quite unlikely that their
having been implanted would have resulted in the birth of a
child. Indeed, the Davis court criticized the intermediate
appellate court because “the true effect of the intermediate
court’s opinion [was] to confer on Junior Davis the inherent
power to veto any transfer of the preembryos in this case
and thus to insure their eventual discard or selfdestruction.” 51
Yet, at least two points might be made about the
supreme court’s criticism of the intermediate appellate
court. First, the state supreme court also gave Junior the
power to assure that the embryos would be discarded or
destroyed 52―if that was a defect in the lower court’s
decision, then it was also a defect in the supreme court’s
decision. 53 Second, delaying a decision for several years was
the functional equivalent of causing the embryos to be
discarded or destroyed because of the state of then-current
technology. If cryopreservation technology improved, then
maintaining the status quo, even for several years, would be
distinguishable from causing the embryos to be destroyed.
49. Davis, 842 S.W.2d at 598.
50. The decision was handed down on June 1, 1992, and the embryos were
cryopreserved early in December, 1988. Id. at 588, 592 (“After fertilization was
completed, a transfer was performed as usual on December 10, 1988; the rest of
the four-to eight-cell entities were cryogenically preserved.”).
51. Id. at 598.
52. See id. at 604.
53. Cf. Ruth Colker, Pregnant Men Revisited or Sperm Is Cheap, Eggs Are
Not, 47 HASTINGS L.J. 1063, 1069 (1996) (“To allow the person who does not wish
to become a parent to play the trump card is to exercise an extremely powerful
veto in the life of the other person when there initially was mutual consent.”
(emphasis omitted)).
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Currently, frozen embryos can be stored for ten years or
longer and still remain usable. 54 This technological
improvement has important implications. First, it means
that delaying implantation for even several years is not the
equivalent of conferring on one of the parties the power to
assure that the embryos will be discarded or destroyed. On
the contrary, they might still be viable and could still be
implanted were Junior to die 55 or were he subsequently to
have a change of heart. Were the embryos thawed out and
destroyed, a subsequent change of heart would be of no
avail.
Yet, improvements in cryotechnology also mean that
even were the embryos persons for purposes of state law,
there still would be no need to implant them immediately.
Delaying their implantation for even several years, could
not be likened to treating them in a way that would cause
their destruction. Indeed, even Louisiana law does not
require that embryos be implanted by a certain time,
54. See Susan B. Apel, Disposition of Frozen Embryos: Are Contracts the
Solution?, VT. BUS. J., Mar. 2001, at 29, 29 (“With the passage of the last twenty
years, the ‘shelf life’ of frozen embryos―the period during which embryos can be
frozen and still remain viable―has been proven to be longer than originally
thought. While some early estimates ranged from two to three years, scientists
now believe that frozen embryos can be kept for at least ten years, and probably
longer.”).
55. It is simply unclear whether the court would have permitted Mary Sue to
donate the embryos were Junior no longer alive to object. Some states might.
See FLA. STAT. § 742.17(3) (2008) (“Absent a written agreement, in the case of
the death of one member of the commissioning couple, any eggs, sperm, or
preembryos shall remain under the control of the surviving member of the
commissioning couple.”). For an argument that she should not have been
permitted to make use of them, see Carl H. Coleman:
When one of the parties is no longer able to indicate an opinion about
the disposition of the embryos, whether because of death,
disappearance, or loss of decision-making capacity, the law should
respect the most recent expression of that person’s wishes.
....
. . . [T]he right to control the use of one’s embryos after death is at least
as important as the right to direct the posthumous disposition of one’s
property, which society has historically recognized through the
enforcement of wills.
Carl H. Coleman, Procreative Liberty and Contemporaneous Choice: An
Inalienable Rights Approach to Frozen Embryo Disputes, 84 MINN. L. REV. 55,
113 (1999).
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instead suggesting that they should be donated once they
are renounced by the genetic parents. 56 However, the law
does not specify what should be done if the parent neither
renounces nor affirmatively chooses to implant, but instead
simply claims to want to delay until he or she is ready to
have the embryos implanted. 57
One infers that factors other than the status of the
embryo played a very important role in the resolution of the
Davis case. For example, the Tennessee Supreme Court
believed that recognizing the embryos as persons “would
doubtless have had the effect of outlawing IVF programs in
the state of Tennessee,” 58 although the court failed to
explain why that was so. The most that the court would
offer by way of explanation was to point to Louisiana law,
which (1) “forbids the intentional destruction of a
cryopreserved IVF embryo and declares that disputes
between parties should be resolved in the ‘best interest’ of
the embryo,” and (2) requires that “unwanted embryos . . .
be made available for ‘adoptive implantation.’” 59 The court
implied that no more needed to be said regarding why the
IVF program could not survive were embryos considered
persons.
Adopting the Louisiana approach would modify many
existing IVF programs in that couples considering what to
do in the event of divorce would not have the option of
directing that any remaining frozen embryos be destroyed.
56. See LA. REV. STAT. ANN. § 9:130 (2000), which states:
If the in vitro fertilization patients renounce, by notarial act, their
parental rights for in utero implantation, then the in vitro fertilized
human ovum shall be available for adoptive implantation in accordance
with written procedures of the facility where it is housed or stored. The
in vitro fertilization patients may renounce their parental rights in
favor of another married couple, but only if the other couple is willing
and able to receive the in vitro fertilized ovum.
Id.
57. The law does suggest that the embryos’ rights must be protected but does
not spell out what this means. See LA. REV. STAT. ANN. § 9:126 (2000) (“A court
in the parish where the in vitro fertilized ovum is located may appoint a curator,
upon motion of the in vitro fertilization patients, their heirs, or physicians who
caused in vitro fertilization to be performed, to protect the in vitro fertilized
human ovum’s rights.”).
58. Davis v. Davis, 842 S.W.2d 588, 595 (Tenn. 1992).
59. Id. at 590 n.1 (quoting LA. REV. STAT. ANN. § 9:121 (1986)).
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However, that might not lead to the end of those programs,
since couples might well decide to take part in an IVF
program even knowing that they would have to promise
either to implant all of their frozen embryos or, instead, to
donate any remaining frozen embryos to another couple in
need.
Some IVF program participants would want to donate
unused frozen embryos to others, 60 and so would not be
deterred by such a requirement. Other participants would
prefer not to be required to donate unused embryos,
perhaps because they would prefer to be able to make that
choice for themselves or because they would prefer not to
have a stranger raising their (genetic) children.
Consider the Andersons, who have been trying to have a
child for several years but have been unable to do so. They
enter into an IVF program. Alice Anderson has a large
number of eggs harvested to increase the likelihood that she
and her husband might eventually have a child. 61 The eggs
are fertilized with Alex Anderson’s sperm, resulting in
several viable embryos. A few are implanted, and the rest
are frozen.
60. See Note, Developing a Legal Framework, supra note 4, which explains:
For IVF participants who no longer wish to use their remaining frozen
embryos for implantation, but who nevertheless want to preserve the
unique potential that embryos have for life, embryo donation offers a
desirable alternative. Embryo donation may also be an attractive option
for potential donors who want to help other infertile couples share in
the joys of parenthood.
Id. at 549-50 (footnotes omitted).
61. See generally Yang, supra note 24, at 591-92 (“Because only about one in
every four preembryos implanted results in a successful pregnancy, the
unavoidable result of IVF is the creation of extra preembryos. These surpluses
are cryopreserved to ensure that there are enough preembryos for use in future
implantation.” (footnotes omitted)); Skouvakis, supra note 1, at 888 (“Because of
the expense and inconvenience of extracting an egg for IVF, couples prefer to
extract a large number of eggs at once so that the ‘extra’ eggs will be readily
available if the first implantation fails.”); Note, Developing a Legal Framework,
supra note 4, at 534 (“Because a pregnancy often does not result and the process
of removing eggs from a woman’s ovaries is time-consuming, expensive, and
physically painful, many more eggs are often removed and fertilized than can be
safely implanted at one time. The remaining embryos are often frozen using a
process called cryopreservation that allows for the possibility of a significant
lapse of time between conception and pregnancy.”).
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Suppose that Alice and Alex are fortunate—Alice
becomes pregnant and is able to carry the fetus to term.
Suppose further that the Andersons do not want to have
any additional children and also do not want to have
another couple raising their biological children. If they had
their choice, the remaining frozen embryos would simply be
discarded. That said, however, the state’s having offered a
constrained set of choices—either do not participate or
participate but agree that all viable embryos will be used by
someone—might not have been enough to dissuade the
Andersons from participating in the program, especially
because they might have been desperate to have a child
genetically related to one or both of them. 62
That couples might still choose to participate in an IVF
program with a constrained set of choices would not
establish that it would be wise public policy to set up a
program with those constraints. Further, it might well be
that some couples would instead make use of IVF programs
in other states if the latter programs did not impose similar
constraints, even though enrolling in a program in another
state would add to the already significant costs associated
with such programs. 63 But it is not at all clear that a state’s
62. See Ruth Lynn Deech, Clones, Ethics and Infertility or Sex, Sheep, and
Statutes, 2 QUINNIPIAC HEALTH L.J. 117, 127 (1999) (“Many childless couples are
desperate.”); cf. Ellen A. Waldman, Disputing over Embryos: Of Contracts and
Consents, 32 ARIZ. ST. L.J. 897, 924 (2000) (“[T]he effort to promote informed and
considered medical decision-making is seriously hindered by the emotional
vortex in which reproductive medicine occurs.”); Melissa Boatman, Comment,
Bringing up Baby: Maryland Must Adopt an Equitable Framework for Resolving
Frozen Embryo Disputes After Divorce, 37 U. BALT. L. REV. 285, 304 (2008) (“Few
anticipate that they will be faced with infertility issues, and when one
encounters them, there is little in the way of preparation for the roller coaster
ride of emotions one experiences. Patients often feel as if they lack control of
their lives or as if they are failures; depression rates are high and marital
troubles sometimes develop in these situations. Often, infertile women seek
treatment ‘at all costs’ with total disregard for the ultimate price they may pay
emotionally, physically, and financially.”).
63. See Melissa E. Fraser, Note, Gender Inequality in In Vitro Fertilization:
Controlling Women’s Reproductive Autonomy, 2 N.Y. CITY L. REV. 183,
195 (1998) (“The cost of IVF has been estimated to be between $67,000 and
$114,000.”). But see Shelly R. Petralia, Note, Resolving Disputes over Excess
Frozen Embryos Through the Confines of Property and Contract Law, 17 J.L. &
HEALTH 103, 133 (2002) (“[C]ouples are limited in choosing another clinic
because of geographical constraints and the limited number of IVF clinics in
existence.”).
2009]
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imposing constraints on a program and thereby creating an
incentive for at least some couples to participate in IVF
programs in other states would be enough to cause a local
IVF program to founder.
A related difficulty is suggested for those states
imposing such constraints on their IVF programs. Suppose
that a couple entered into an IVF program understanding
that the state required that all viable embryos be implanted
in someone. However, the couple then wished to have their
frozen embryos transferred to an IVF facility in another
state where the couple had moved to take advantage of a job
opportunity. Suppose further that the latter state did not
require that all viable frozen embryos be implanted. Would
the state imposing the limitation attempt to limit the
transfer of the embryos to a facility in that other state for
fear that the embryos might eventually be discarded rather
than implanted? 64
One factor emphasized by the Davis court was that very
important interests of the adults were at least potentially
implicated—the court noted that “the right of procreational
autonomy is composed of two rights of equal significance—
the right to procreate and the right to avoid procreation.” 65
64. See, for example, York v. Jones, 717 F. Supp. 421 (E.D. Va. 1989), which
involved a couple seeking to have their frozen pre-zygote transferred from a
Virginia to a California IVF facility where they lived. See id. at 422. In York,
[t]he plaintiffs, Steven York, M.D. and Risa Adler-York (the Yorks), are
the progenitors of the cryopreserved human pre-zygote (the pre-zygote)
at issue in this case. The plaintiffs seek the release and transfer of the
pre-zygote from the defendant The Howard and Georgeanna Jones
Institute For Reproductive Medicine (Jones Institute) in Norfolk,
Virginia to the Institute for Reproductive Research at the Hospital of
the Good Samaritan located in Los Angeles, California. The defendants
have refused to consent to an inter-institutional transfer of the prezygote.
Id. However, Virginia did not have a statute like Louisiana’s limiting what
could be done with the embryos. At issue in In re Busalacchi, No. 59582, 1991
WL 26851, at *1 (Mo. Ct. App. Mar. 5, 1991) was whether Peter Busalacchi
could have his daughter Christine, a 20-year-old woman allegedly in a
permanent vegetative state, moved from a Missouri facility to a Minnesota
facility. The father made clear that he wanted to move his daughter “to a state
where it is clear that he has the ability to stop the life-sustaining medical
treatment that he initially authorized for her recovery.” Id. at *4.
65. Davis v. Davis, 842 S.W.2d 588, 601 (Tenn. 1992).
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A separate question was whether this right to procreational
autonomy had been triggered in the instant case.
The Davis court suggested that “an interest in avoiding
genetic parenthood can be significant enough to trigger the
protections afforded to all other aspects of parenthood.” 66
Thus, the court recognized that an individual can have an
interest in avoiding genetic parenthood, even if he would
not acquire any legal responsibilities toward any child
produced as a result of implantation. The court took
seriously that an individual might suffer emotionally were
he to know that a child biologically related to him was being
raised by strangers, referring to “the relative anguish of a
lifetime of unwanted parenthood.” 67 Indeed, the court
discussed the “profound impact” that permitting
implantation might have. 68
Some commentators question whether someone like
Junior Davis would indeed suffer emotional harm were he
to know that he was the genetic parent of someone existing
elsewhere—after all, many semen donors do not suffer
emotional scars. 69 Yet, someone who donates semen
knowing that it will be used by someone else is not in the
same position as someone who produces semen so that he
can father a child with his partner. 70
The point here is not that all individuals who are the
genetic parents of children raised by strangers nonetheless
66. Id. at 603.
67. Id. at 601.
68. See id. at 603; see also Cohen, supra note 48, at 1145 (“[A]n individual
who contemporaneously opposes implantation of a preembryo is harmed when a
preembryo is implanted and successfully carried to term, even when he is not
obligated to bear the burden of gestational or legal (and consequently financial)
parenthood.”).
69. See Ellen Waldman, The Parent Trap: Uncovering the Myth of “Coerced
Parenthood” in Frozen Embryo Disputes, 53 AM. U. L. REV. 1021, 1049 (2004)
(“These studies, which delve into the psycho-social ramifications of sperm
donation, suggest that most sperm donors are relatively unconcerned with the
offspring their semen creates.”); Boatman, supra note 62, at 312 (“Studies have
found that the majority of sperm donors are little concerned with the end result
of their donations, even with the strong possibility that the end result is a
biologically-related child.”).
70. See Boatman, supra note 62, at 312 (“There is an acknowledged difference
between anonymous sperm donors and spouses who enter into the ART process
with the hope of conceiving a child.”).
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1175
feel strong ties to those children, 71 but merely that it is
eminently plausible to believe that someone might feel this
way. 72 However, the Davis court did not analogously
consider whether the right to be a genetic parent might also
suffice to trigger constitutional guarantees, even if the child
would be raised by others. Perhaps that is because Mary
Sue wanted to donate the embryos purely out of altruism
and did not feel that there would be any particular positive
impact on her in knowing that she was a genetic parent. On
the other hand, it may be that Mary Sue valued being a
genetic parent, and wanted to donate the embryos to
another couple because Junior would then not then face
potential financial responsibility as the legal father. 73
Indeed, she might have preferred to raise the child or
children herself, but might also have believed that Junior
would only consent to implantation were he assured that he
would be a legal stranger to any children resulting from the
implantation. In any event, regardless of why Mary Sue
wanted to donate the embryos, someone else might want to
donate them precisely because she would receive psychic
benefit just from knowing that she had become a genetic
parent.
That someone might feel this way seems plausible. For
example, while many egg donors feel good about having
71. See id. (“These studies reveal that when parents and children are
separated by distance, and when parents are no longer in a romantic
relationship with one another, bonds between parents and their biological
offspring are minimal at best.”).
72. A separate question is whether a progenitor wishing to block
implantation would have to offer concrete evidence of harm before such wishes
would be granted. For such a suggestion, see Waldman, supra note 69, at 106162 (“A spouse who seeks to block such usage should be required to offer concrete
evidence of harm apart from the generalized assertions of psychological harm to
which the courts have, thus far, been so receptive.”).
73. Cf. OHIO REV. CODE ANN. § 3111.97(D) (LexisNexis Supp. 2008) (“A donor
shall not be treated in law or regarded as a parent of a child born as a result of
embryo donation. A donor shall have no parental responsibilities and shall have
no right, obligation, or interest with respect to a child resulting from the
donation.”); FLA. STAT. ANN. § 742.14 (West 2005) (“The donor of any egg, sperm,
or preembryo, other than the commissioning couple or a father who has
executed a preplanned adoption agreement under s. 63.212, shall relinquish all
maternal or paternal rights and obligations with respect to the donation or the
resulting children. Only reasonable compensation directly related to the
donation of eggs, sperm, and preembryos shall be permitted.”).
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given their eggs to others, 74 some say that they would like to
know whether the eggs resulted in live births. 75
Presumably, at least some of those who want to know
whether children resulted from the donations would take
pleasure in knowing that children had indeed been born
from those eggs. That pleasure might result from knowing
that one had helped others in need but also might result
from knowing that one has a genetic connection to other
living beings in the next generation.
Suppose, then, that Mary Sue had wanted to be
genetically connected to a child in the world but could not
sustain a pregnancy and could not afford to hire a
surrogate. If indeed Junior and Mary Sue were equal in the
eyes of the law, as the Davis court suggested, 76 then one
would expect that Mary Sue’s right to be a genetic parent,
even if that genetic parenthood was not accompanied by
legal rights or obligations, would also have been enough to
trigger constitutional guarantees.
Even were Mary Sue’s interest in being a genetic parent
to trigger constitutional guarantees, that would not settle
whether she, rather than Junior, should have been given
custody of the embryos, although it presumably would have
made her case stronger. Yet it was not clear that the court
was weighing the right to be a genetic parent as heavily as
the right not to be a genetic parent, 77 notwithstanding the
court’s claim that it was treating the gamete providers
equally. 78 After noting that the decision about whether to
grant Mary Sue custody of the embryos would have been
more difficult had she wanted to use them herself, the Davis
court cautioned that it would not have been willing to
74. Cf. Alanna Winter & Judith C. Daniluk, A Gift from the Heart: The
Experiences of Women Whose Egg Donations Helped Their Sisters Become
Mothers, 82 J. COUNS. & DEV. 483, 492 (2004) (discussing a study in which many
donors report having positive feelings about their donations and would be
willing to donate again).
75. See id. at 484 (noting a preference among donors to know whether
children were born of their donations).
76. Davis v. Davis, 842 S.W.2d 588, 601 (Tenn. 1992) (“Mary Sue Davis and
Junior Lewis Davis must be seen as entirely equivalent gamete-providers.”).
77. Cf. Daar, supra note 4, at 201 (“On balance, it appears that in the world
of assisted reproductive technologies, the perceived harm of forced parenthood
outweighs any harms arising from the deprivation of reproductive rights.”).
78. See Davis, 842 S.W.2d at 601.
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AWARDING EMBRYOS UPON DIVORCE
1177
override Junior’s wishes unless Mary Sue had had no other
reasonable options. 79 Yet that means that Mary Sue’s
interest in being a genetic parent combined with her
interest in nurturing a child biologically related to her
might not have overcome Junior’s interest in not being a
genetic parent.
As to whether the Davis court was weighing the interest
in not being a genetic parent too heavily, this would depend
upon how the court spelled out which options for Mary Sue
would have been reasonable. For example, the Davis court
understood that her having to undergo another egg retrieval
would be painful, but did not believe that the painfulness of
the procedure would render the option unreasonable. 80
Suppose, however, that it was also true that because Mary
Sue was now older, there was a decreased likelihood that
any harvested eggs would eventually result in a live birth. 81
That factor would make it less reasonable for her to undergo
additional attempts to harvest eggs, although there is
reason to think that the Davis court would not have
considered it sufficiently unreasonable to justify granting
her custody of the embryos. For example, after noting that
there might be reasons precluding Mary Sue from going
through the entire process again, the court offered the
consolation that “she could still achieve the child-rearing
aspects of parenthood through adoption.” 82 Yet the whole
79. Id. at 604.
80. Id.
81. Cf. Colker, supra note 53, at 1073 (“As women age, their fertility declines
. . . . Thus, a woman who harvests a healthy egg while she is in her early thirties
and fertilizes it with a man’s sperm has a much greater chance of pregnancy
and a healthy birth than a woman in her late thirties or even early forties.”);
John A. Robertson, Precommitment Strategies for Disposition of Frozen
Embryos, 50 EMORY L.J. 989, 1015 (2001) (“After the age of thirty-eight or forty,
the quality of oocytes is so poor that IVF has a very low chance of success. A
woman who had agreed to undergo IVF only on condition that she could use or
donate all embryos and is now over forty would have a good claim that she has
no other chance for reproduction.”).
82. Davis, 842 S.W.2d at 604; see also Tracey S. Pachman, Disputes over
Frozen Preembryos & the “Right Not to Be a Parent,” 12 COLUM. J. GENDER & L.
128, 131 (2003) (“[Noting that the court’s willingness to allow her to have the
embryos] ‘only if she could not achieve parenthood by any other reasonable
means’ . . . leaves open to speculation whether adoption or costly medical
procedures would be considered ‘reasonable means’ by which a woman could
achieve parenthood.” (quoting Davis, 842 S.W.2d at 604) (emphasis added)).
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focus of discussion had been on the genetic parenting
interests of the parties, so the court’s noting that adoption
would still be an alternative, while true, seems to undercut
the claim that the Davises were being treated equally as
gamete providers.
Perhaps the Davis court was relying on the special
circumstances suggested by Junior’s history—the court
noted that “[i]n light of his boyhood experiences, Junior
Davis is vehemently opposed to fathering a child that would
not live with both parents.” 83 Yet, there was no reason ex
ante to believe that a couple wishing to make use of the
embryos would be particularly likely to divorce. Indeed,
ironically, when the last eggs were harvested from Mary
Sue, 84 the Davises’ marriage had not been particularly
stable, 85 and Junior had been hoping that their relationship
would be improved by the birth of a child. 86 But if he was
willing to bring a child or children into a relationship based
on the hope that doing so would improve the relationship,
he must not have been inalterably opposed to permitting
children genetically related to him to be brought into a
home where the adults might eventually part ways.
Mary Sue had testified that she had not been aware
that there were problems in their marriage, 87 and might
have felt differently about going through the IVF procedure
if she been aware of how Junior had felt. 88 But Junior knew
that the marriage was rocky, and it thus seems surprising
that the Davis court uncritically accepted his claims about
83. Davis, 842 S.W.2d at 604.
84. Id. at 592 (“[O]n their last attempt, on December 8, 1988, the gynecologist
who performed the procedure was able to retrieve nine ova for fertilization.”).
85. Id. (“Junior Davis filed for divorce—in February 1989. He testified that
he had known that their marriage ‘was not very stable’ for a year or more.”).
86. Id.
87. Id.
88. The Davis court explained:
Mary Sue Davis’s testimony is contradictory as to whether she would
have gone ahead with IVF if she had been worried about her marriage.
At one point she said if she had known they were getting divorced, she
would not have gone ahead with it, but at another point she indicated
that she was so committed to the idea of being a mother that she could
not say that she would not have gone ahead with cryopreservation.
Id. at 592 n.10.
2009]
AWARDING EMBRYOS UPON DIVORCE
1179
the importance of his genetic children being raised in a
home with two parents.
At least two points might be made about the Davis
court’s analysis of how Junior would feel were Mary Sue or
someone else to use the embryos. First, his actions during
the marriage belied his commitment to never wanting to
father children who might not be living in a two-parent
home. Second, even were it true that Junior or someone like
him might feel badly about being genetically connected to a
child raised by others, the court seemed unwilling to
consider that an analogous argument might be made about
the feelings of the parent who wants the embryos donated,
i.e., that he or she might feel terribly were the embryos
discarded rather than given the opportunity to flourish.
In Gonzales v. Carhart, 89 the Court emphasized that
women who had abortions might feel regret. 90 The difficulty
there was not that the Court was wrong 91—it seems
reasonable to believe that some women regret their
decisions to abort, 92 but that the Court seemed to ignore
that women might regret not having had an abortion. Even
were it appropriate for the state to decide what is best for
women rather than let the women decide for themselves, 93 it
is not clear why the Court should only consider the feelings
89. 550 U.S. 124 (2007).
90. Id. at 159 (“While we find no reliable data to measure the phenomenon, it
seems unexceptionable to conclude some women come to regret their choice to
abort the infant life they once created and sustained.”).
91. Justice Ginsburg implied that the Court was simply wrong about this. See
id. at 183 (Ginsburg, J., dissenting) (“[T]he Court invokes an antiabortion
shibboleth for which it concededly has no reliable evidence . . . .”).
92. See, e.g., Pamela S. Karlan, The Law of Small Numbers: Gonzales v.
Carhart, Parents Involved in Community Schools, and Some Themes from the
First Full Term of the Roberts Court, 86 N.C. L. REV. 1369, 1394 (2008) (“Some
women surely do regret having abortions.”); Rebecca E. Ivey, Note, Destabilizing
Discourses: Blocking and Exploiting a New Discourse at Work in Gonzales v.
Carhart, 94 VA. L. REV. 1451, 1491 n.181 (2008) (“This is not to say that no
woman regrets an abortion . . . .”).
93. Cheryl Hanna, Beechman v. Leahy and the Doctrine of Hypocrisy, 32 VT.
L. REV. 673, 675-76 (2008) (“Saving women from regret, as Kennedy essentially
argues, justifies overriding an informed decision a woman makes in consultation
with her doctor. Such reasoning, as Justice Ginsburg argues in dissent, strikes a
blow to women’s autonomy, undermining their ability to make life decisions for
themselves.”).
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of some women, especially when the potential objects of
regret included not only whether to have an abortion but
also which type of abortion to have. 94 So, too, the Davis
court seemed to ignore the feelings of individuals that might
have militated against the result reached by the court.
The Davis court explained that a much different result
would have been reached had the Davises initially agreed
about the disposition of the embryos in the event of
divorce. 95 Had there been such an agreement, it would have
been enforceable, subject only to their both agreeing to
modify it. 96 Thus, although Davis apparently weighs the
right not to be a genetic parent more heavily than the right
to be a genetic parent, the court implied that such a
weighing would be triggered only when there had been no
agreement in the first place about the disposition of the
embryos in the event of divorce.
B. Kass
The New York Court of Appeals followed the Davis
court’s lead in emphasizing the importance of the initial
agreement. In Kass v. Kass, 97 the New York court was asked
to determine who should have custody of five frozen prezygotes 98 that had been created during the Kasses’
marriage. 99 This time, however, there had been an
agreement that in the event of divorce the pre-zygotes
would be donated to the IVF program for approved
purposes. 100 The difficulty was that these pre-zygotes
94. Cf. Gonzales, 550 U.S. at 184 (Ginsburg, J., dissenting) (“[T]he Court
deprives women of the right to make an autonomous choice, even at the expense
of their safety.”).
95. Davis v. Davis, 842 S.W.2d 588, 598 (Tenn. 1992).
96. See id. at 597.
97. 696 N.E.2d 174 (N.Y. 1998).
98. The Kass court explained its use of the term “pre-zygote”: “We use the
parties’ term ‘pre-zygotes,’ which are defined in the record as ‘eggs which have
been penetrated by sperm but have not yet joined genetic material.’” Id. at 175
n.1. A zygote is only one cell. See Davis, 842 S.W.2d at 593.
99. Kass, 696 N.E.2d at 175.
100. Id.
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represented Maureen Kass’s only chance for genetic
parenthood. 101
The initial agreement suggested that “[i]n the event of
divorce . . . legal ownership of any stored pre-zygotes must
be determined in a property settlement and will be released
as directed by order of a court of competent jurisdiction.” 102
The immediately preceding sentence clarified the parties’
intentions, specifying that the “frozen pre-zygotes will not
be released from storage for any purpose without the
written consent of both of [the parties], consistent with the
policies of the IVF Program and applicable law.” 103 After
having agreed to divorce, Steven and Maureen had each
signed a statement saying that the pre-zygotes “should be
disposed of [in] the manner outlined in [the] consent form
and that neither Maureen Kass[,] Steve Kass, or anyone
else will lay claim to custody of these ‘pre-zygotes.”’ 104
However, less than two months later, Maureen sought sole
custody of the pre-zygotes so that they could be implanted
in her. 105
The New York court found that “the parties clearly
expressed their intent that in the circumstances presented
the pre-zygotes would be donated to the IVF program for
research purposes.” 106 The court noted that individuals
might change their minds after having made an
agreement—cryopreservation can preserve the embryos for
an extended period, and circumstances can change greatly
over time. 107 However, the possibility that conditions might
change made it all the more important for the initial
agreement to be informed and deliberate―the Kass court
emphasized “the need for clear, consistent principles to
guide parties in protecting their interests and resolving
their disputes, and the need for particular care in
fashioning such principles as issues are better defined and
101. Id.
102. Id. at 176.
103. Id.
104. Id. at 177 (first and third alterations in original).
105. Id.
106. Id. at 178.
107. Id. at 180.
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appreciated.” 108 Were such agreements enforceable only
when the parties continued to agree with what had been
originally decided, the agreements would be of relatively
little use—either the parties would continue to agree about
the disposition of the embryos and there would be no
challenge to the enforcement of the agreement or, if one of
the parties had had a change of heart, the original
agreement would be of no use in determining what to do. 109
Presumably many couples who could not agree about the
disposition of their embryos would ask the courts to settle
their dispute. 110
A variety of issues raised in Davis were not addressed
in Kass, e.g., how much weight to place on the fact that one
of the individuals would be precluded from becoming a
genetic parent were the court to honor the other gamete
provider’s wish not to be a parent. The Kass court did not
have to do the potentially difficult balancing of the
implicated interests, 111 precisely because there had been a
pre-existing agreement. Indeed, both the Davis and Kass
courts suggested that prior agreements are enforceable
unless both parties subsequently agree about a different
course of action. However, other ways of approaching the
enforceability of such contracts are not only conceivable but
have been adopted by different state courts.
108. Id. at 179.
109. Id. at 180.
110. See Yang, supra note 24, at 629 (“By encouraging IVF participants to sign
enforceable agreements, courts would no longer be called upon each time a
dispute arises.”); see also Robertson, supra note 81, at 993 (“Advance directives
and contracts for future disposition of embryos provide a convenient and
reasonable way to resolve questions of embryo disposition when the couple is
unavailable or unable to agree. They enable the gamete providers to control
those choices by advance commitment, rather than permit other decisionmakers
to decide.”); id. at 1003 (“[Discussing the] social welfare and efficiency gains for
both parties and society from enforcing contractual precommitments.”).
111. Kass, 696 N.E.2d at 180 (“To the extent possible, it should be the
progenitors—not the State and not the courts—who by their prior directive
make this deeply personal life choice.”).
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1183
II. THE ENFORCEABILITY OF CONTRACTS AFTER A CHANGE OF
HEART
Anticipating that there would be many cases in which
parties might change their minds over the proper
disposition of frozen embryos after much time had passed
or, perhaps, if the circumstances had substantially changed,
the Kass court suggested that the initial agreement should
specify what was to happen were circumstances to change.
Other courts have taken a different approach, holding that
a former agreement between members of a couple about the
disposition of their embryos would only be enforceable if no
one had since had a change of heart. 112 The first state
supreme court to adopt this approach in the context of
frozen embryos was the Supreme Judicial Court of
Massachusetts in A.Z. v. B.Z. 113
A. A.Z.
At issue in A.Z. was the enforceability of an agreement
between members of a divorced couple about the use of
remaining frozen embryos. 114 B.Z. and A.Z. had successfully
used IVF previously and had had twin daughters. 115 At that
time, some of the pre-embryos were frozen for future use. 116
112. Susan B. Apel explains:
Cases following Kass in relatively rapid succession took a decidedly
different view on the issue of contract enforceability; in failing to
uphold the contracts, the courts became the arbiters of disputes over
what should happen to the embryos. The courts articulated the “no
forced parenthood” argument as a primary principle of resolving these
disputes.
Susan B. Apel, Cryopreserved Embryos: A Response to “Forced Parenthood” and
the Role of Intent, 39 FAM. L.Q. 663, 665 (2005).
113. 725 N.E.2d 1051 (Mass. 2000).
114. Id. at 1052 (“B.Z., the former wife (wife) of A.Z. (husband), appeals from a
judgment of the Probate and Family Court that included, inter alia, a
permanent injunction in favor of the husband, prohibiting the wife ‘from
utilizing’ the frozen preembryos held in cryopreservation at the clinic.”)
(footnotes omitted)).
115. Id. at 1053.
116. Id.
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Three years after the birth of their daughters, B.Z. had
one of the frozen preembryos thawed and implanted without
informing her husband. 117 He learned of this through a
notice from his insurance company. 118 Relations between the
husband and wife then deteriorated and the couple
eventually divorced. 119
When entering the program, B.Z. and A.Z. both signed
certain forms specifying that the embryos would be
returned to the wife for implantation should the couple
separate. 120 At each of the subsequent egg retrievals, the
husband and wife signed additional consent forms. 121 In all
of these subsequent signings, A.Z. signed a blank form that
was later filled in by B.Z. 122 However, the directions in the
later forms were “substantially similar” 123 to those contained
in the first form.
Express language of the agreement notwithstanding,
the court was “dubious at best that [the forms]
represent[ed] the intent of the husband and the wife
regarding disposition of the preembryos in the case of a
dispute between them.” 124 The court noted that “[t]he form
[did] not state, and the record [did] not indicate, that the
husband and wife intended the consent form to act as a
binding agreement between them should they later disagree
as to the disposition,” and construed the form as being
“intended only to define the donors’ relationship as a unit
with the clinic.” 125
Yet, it is utterly implausible to interpret the language
at issue as merely intended to govern the relationship
between the clinic and the donors as a unit, since it
described the then-current intention to give the ex-wife the
117. Id.
118. Id.
119. Id.
120. Id. at 1054.
121. Id.
122. Id.
123. Id.
124. Id. at 1056.
125. Id.
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embryos for her own use should the couple later separate. 126
Perhaps that intention rested on the implicit assumption
that the embryos could be implanted post-separation only if
the couple had not previously been able to use IVF
successfully. However, even were that accurate, the
agreement would not merely have been meant to govern the
relationship between the clinic and the donors. Instead, it
would have been meant to govern what would be done with
the embryos in the event of separation, although it would
not have been intended to cover a case in which the embryos
were going to be implanted even after other children had
been born. 127
The A.Z. court noted that the consent form did not
contain a “duration provision.” 128 Because the wife was
seeking to enforce the agreement four years after it had
been made and against her ex-husband’s wishes, the court
refused to “assume that the donors intended the consent
form to govern the disposition of the frozen preembryos four
years after it was executed, especially in light of the
fundamental change in their relationship (i.e., divorce).” 129
Yet, it is not uncommon for couples to be deciding what to
do with frozen embryos four years after their creation, 130 so
the lack of a duration provision should not have militated
against enforcement in this particular case, given when that
enforcement was sought.
Certainly it is fair to point out that there had been a
fundamental change in the couple’s relationship—they had
divorced. As a general matter, couples creating embryos
together might anticipate that the embryos would be used
126. See Daar, supra note 4, at 198 (“[The A.Z. court’s] interpretation seems an
illogical departure from the very purpose of contractual agreements, i.e., to
anticipate and govern the future conduct of the parties.”).
127. Cf. Cohen, supra note 48, at 1194 (“My own sense is that the balance of
interests favors use when an individual has no genetic children but not when he
or she has more than one . . . .”).
128. A.Z., 725 N.E.2d at 1056.
129. Id. at 1057.
130. See Robert Plocheck, Magazines, DALLAS MORNING NEWS, July 29, 2006,
at 4H (“[The] average IVF couple . . . has seven frozen embryos in storage; on
average, the embryos have been stored for four years.”).
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only while the couple remained together. 131 However, the
agreement at issue in A.Z. had specifically discussed what
should be done in the event that the couple separated, so it
could not be claimed that the couple had not even
considered what to do in the event that their relationship
did not last.
The A.Z. court understood that this eventuality had
been contemplated within the agreement, but noted that
separation and divorce have “distinct legal meanings,” and
refused to accept that “an agreement on this issue providing
for separation was meant to govern in the event of a
divorce.” 132 But this kind of analysis contradicted the spirit,
if not the letter, of other portions of the opinion. If the
agreement was merely designed to reflect the intentions of
the parties and was not designed to be a legally binding
agreement, one would not expect the parties to take the
special care required to distinguish between separation and
divorce. There was no evidence that the parties were legally
trained, and they might simply have been considering what
to do if they were still together versus what to do if they
were living apart, i.e., had separated.
Indeed there is something disquieting about the court’s
implicit position. Suppose that an individual agrees that his
wife can have custody of the frozen embryos they have
created, even should the couple separate. According to the
reasoning announced by the court, the likelihood that such
an agreement would be enforced should depend upon when
she sought to enforce the agreement—her chances should be
much better if she seeks the embryos before the divorce is
final, even if she is irrevocably committed to securing the
divorce regardless of whether or when implantation takes
place.
It may well be that the A.Z. court was offering these
kinds of arguments as rationalizations for a result that it
clearly wanted to reach. The court noted that “even had the
husband and the wife entered into an unambiguous
agreement between themselves regarding the disposition of
the frozen preembryos, we would not enforce an agreement
131. See Coleman, supra note 55, at 83 (“[I]t is important to keep in mind the
context in which the embryos were originally created―a mutual undertaking by
the couple to have children together.”).
132. A.Z., 725 N.E.2d at 1057.
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that would compel one donor to become a parent against his
or her will.” 133 The court believed that its holding otherwise
would amount to “forced procreation,” 134 which would be
against public policy.
Yet, there are a multitude of reasons why this is not
forced procreation, as if this were a real-life version of a
Margaret Atwood novel. 135 A.Z. had voluntarily contributed
his sperm to fertilize his wife’s eggs, 136 and had agreed that
she could use the frozen embryos for implantation in the
event of their separation. Further, there is no reason to
believe that he could have avoided parental responsibility
had B.Z.’s last pregnancy attempt been successful. 137 Indeed,
one infers from the opinion that B.Z.’s attempt to become
pregnant again, without even having mentioned this to A.Z.,
may have contributed to the breakdown of the marriage—
the court noted that relations between A.Z. and B.Z.
deteriorated around the time that he learned from his
insurance company that she had tried without success to
have another child. 138 However, the court did not elaborate.
There was no discussion in the opinion whether, for
example, A.Z. and B.Z. had discussed having more children
prior to her last attempt and A.Z. had been adamant in not
wanting more or whether B.Z. had sensed that their
marriage was in trouble and she had wanted to become
pregnant again as a way of salvaging the marriage. Or it
133. Id.
134. Id. at 1057-58.
135. See generally MARGARET ATWOOD, THE HANDMAID’S TALE (Anchor Books
1998) (1986) (describing a world with forced surrogacy).
136. See Daar, supra note 4, at 199 (“[T]he intent to parent has been expressed
by the voluntary surrender of gametes.”).
137. See MASS. GEN. LAWS ch. 209C, § 6(a) (2007) (“[A] man is presumed to be
the father of a child . . . if: (1) he is or has been married to the mother and the
child was born during the marriage, or within three hundred days after the
marriage was terminated by death, annulment or divorce . . . .”).
138. The A.Z, court explained:
She did so without informing her husband. The husband learned of this
when he received a notice from his insurance company regarding the
procedure. During this period relations between the husband and wife
deteriorated. The wife sought and received a protective order against
the husband under G.L. c. 209A. Ultimately, they separated and the
husband filed for divorce.
A.Z, 725 N.E.2d at 1053 (footnote omitted).
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may be that B.Z. anticipated that the relationship would
soon end and she wanted to become pregnant again before
the relationship was officially over. All that is clear is that
the relationship faltered around the time that A.Z. learned
about the attempt to have another child.
Suppose that the A.Z. court had enforced the initial
agreement and had awarded B.Z. the remaining embryos.
Suppose further that she had become pregnant and given
birth to a child post-divorce. A.Z. might well have been held
financially responsible for the child. Relatively few states
expressly relieve the former spouse of financial
responsibility in this kind of situation. 139 Without such an
139. See Cohen, supra note 48, at 1124 (“[T]hree states (Texas, Washington,
and Colorado) have statutes specifying that if a fertilized preembryo is
implanted after the parties divorce, a former spouse who contributed genetic
material is not deemed to be the legal parent of any resulting child if the former
spouse does not contemporaneously consent.”). For Colorado’s stance, see COLO.
REV. STAT. § 19-4-106(7)(a)-(b) (2008), which states:
(a) If a marriage is dissolved before placement of eggs, sperm, or
embryos, the former spouse is not a parent of the resulting child unless
the former spouse consented in a record that if assisted reproduction
were to occur after a dissolution of marriage, the former spouse would
be a parent of the child.
(b) The consent of a former spouse to assisted reproduction may be
withdrawn by that individual in a record at any time before placement
of eggs, sperm, or embryos.
Id. For Texas’s stance, see TEX. FAM. CODE ANN. § 160.706(a)-(b) (Vernon 2007),
which states:
(a) If a marriage is dissolved before the placement of eggs, sperm, or
embryos, the former spouse is not a parent of the resulting child unless
the former spouse consented in a record . . . that if assisted
reproduction were to occur after a divorce the former spouse would be a
parent of the child.” (b) The consent of a former spouse to assisted
reproduction may be withdrawn by that individual in a record kept by a
licensed physician at any time before the placement of eggs, sperm, or
embryos.
Id. For Washington’s stance, see WASH. REV. CODE § 26.26.725 (2008), which
states:
(1) If a marriage is dissolved before placement of eggs, sperm, or an
embryo, the former spouse is not a parent of the resulting child unless
the former spouse consented in a record that if assisted reproduction
were to occur after a divorce, the former spouse would be a parent of
the child.
2009]
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expressly recognized exception, A.Z. might be treated as
would any other individual who divorced his wife after
conception had already taken place. 140 Certainly all else
being equal, it would be in the child’s interest to have both
her mother and her father supporting her, even if her
parents were no longer living together. Further, the case
law in other areas involving unwilling parents supports the
imposition of such an obligation.
B. On Being an Unwilling Parent
In A.Z., there was no evidence that A.Z. had somehow
been deceived into providing his sperm so that B.Z.’s eggs
could be fertilized. 141 Nor was there any evidence of his
having been deceived into signing the original agreement
giving his wife custody of any remaining frozen embryos in
the event that the couple separated. In other cases,
individuals who had not wanted to become fathers were
nonetheless held financially responsible for their children,
even if they had been deceived into becoming fathers, for
example, because they had falsely been told that
contraception was being used. 142
(2) The consent of the former spouse to assisted reproduction may be
revoked by that individual in a record at any time before placement of
eggs, sperm, or embryos.
Id.
140. See, e.g., L.W.K. v. E.R.C., 735 N.E.2d 359, 366 (Mass. 2000) (“[T]he
Legislature has imposed an explicit duty on parents who divorce and those who
give birth to children out of wedlock to support their minor child until they
attain their majority.”).
141. Cf. Colker, supra note 53, at 1069 (“In the frozen embryo context, the
initial desire to donate gametes is for a very clear purpose―to become
parents―rather than, for example, for sexual satisfaction.”).
142. In Beard v. Skipper, the court explained: “Defendant contends that
plaintiff’s misrepresentation as to her use of birth control can be used as a
mitigating factor when computing defendant’s contribution towards the child
support obligation where each parent is financially able to bear the full cost of
child support. [The court] disagree[s].” 451 N.W.2d 614, 614 (Mich. Ct. App.
1990). In L. Pamela P. v. Frank S., the court explained:
The father’s novel theory that he is constitutionally entitled to a
diminution of his responsibilities to the child because the mother’s
fraud and deceit deprived him of his ‘procreative freedom’ . . . has no
basis in the statute and, indeed, is not germane to the inquiry at hand.
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Consider, for example, Stephen K. v. Roni L., 143 in which
it was alleged that Roni had falsely claimed to be taking
birth control pills and that Stephen had relied upon that
representation when having sexual relations with her. 144
Assuming the father’s allegation that he was deceived to be true, how
does it logically follow that the child should suffer?
451 N.Y.S.2d 766, 767 (App. Div. 1982) (citation omitted). In Wallis v. Smith,
the court explained:
Wallis and Smith . . . agreed that Smith would use birth control pills.
Wallis and Smith further agreed that their sexual intimacy would last
only as long as Smith continued to take birth control pills because
Wallis made it clear that he did not want to father a child. Wallis
participated in contraception only passively; he relied on Smith to use
birth control and took no precautions himself.
As time went by, Smith changed her mind. She chose to stop taking
birth control pills, but never informed Wallis of her decision. Wallis
continued their intimate relationship, and Smith became pregnant.
Smith carried the fetus to term and gave birth to a normal, healthy girl
on November 27, 1998.
22 P.3d 682, 683 (N.M. Ct. App. 2001). In Henson v. Sorrell, the court explained:
Prior to the beginning of their sexual relationship Sorrell informed
Henson that she was taking birth control pills. According to the trial
record and exhibits, Sorrell was experienced with a variety of birth
control methods and had been taking birth control pills since December
1994. However, in late June 1995 Sorrell stopped taking birth control
pills because she was experiencing side effects associated with the
contraceptive. Sorrell admits that she did not inform Henson about
stopping the birth control pills, and the parties did not engage in any
alternative form of birth control.
. . . As would be expected, Sorrell became pregnant shortly after she
stopped the birth control pills, and gave birth to a child in March 1996.
There is no contention in this appeal that Henson is not the father of
that child.
No. 02A01-9711-CV-00291, 1999 WL 5630, at *1 (Tenn. Ct. App. Jan. 8, 1999);
see also Colker, supra note 53, at 1069 (“If a man and woman have intercourse,
and the woman deceives the man into thinking that she is using birth control,
we do not allow the man to exercise a veto over her desire to carry a pregnancy
to term. In fact, we even impose child support on him, despite the possible
fraud.”).
143. 164 Cal. Rptr. 618 (Ct. App. 1980).
144. Id. at 619 (“The cross-complaint alleged that Roni L. (Roni), the child’s
mother, had falsely represented that she was taking birth control pills and that
in reliance upon such representation Stephen engaged in sexual intercourse
with Roni which eventually resulted in the birth of a baby girl unwanted by
Stephen.”). Also see Inez M. v. Nathan G., where the court noted:
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The California appellate court deciding the case seemed to
accept that Roni had lied to Stephen, 145 but held as a matter
of public policy that she should not be held financially
responsible for that deception. 146 The court rejected that
Stephen had been tricked into fathering an unwanted
child, 147 reasoning that he could have taken “precautionary
measures” 148 had he been so inclined. Stephen was obligated
to pay child support, and Roni did not have to reimburse
him for any portion of those payments. 149
In L. Pamela P. v. Frank S., 150 a man tried to avoid his
child support obligation by asserting in his defense that the
mother had deliberately and falsely claimed to be using
contraception. 151 The New York Court of Appeals rejected
that such a defense, even if true, 152 would excuse the
That first night, according to Respondent, he relied on Petitioner’s
representation that she “took birth control pills” and refrained from
purchasing further contraceptive protection. Respondent testified that
he also relied upon Petitioner’s statements during their earlier
conversations that she had had two abortions, that she was not ready
for children, and that she was totally committed to her career.
451 N.Y.S.2d 607, 608 (Fam. Ct. 1982). However, the Petitioner’s testimony in
Inez conflicts with Respondent’s testimony.
She testified that she had discontinued the use of “‘birth control pills”
some years earlier upon medical advice, and she denied advising
Respondent of her use of such contraception. Indeed, she further
testified she was unable to use an intrauterine device because of a
fibroid condition and relied upon “foam” or similar contraception.
Id. at 608.
145. Stephen K., 164 Cal. Rptr. at 620 (“[A]lthough Roni may have lied and
betrayed the personal confidence reposed in her by Stephen . . . .”).
146. Id. at 621.
147. Id.
148. Id.
149. See id. at 619.
150. 449 N.E.2d 713 (N.Y. 1983).
151. Id. at 714 (“The issue on this appeal is whether a father, whose paternity
of a child has been established, may assert, as a defense to his support
obligation the deliberate misrepresentation of the mother concerning her use of
contraception.”).
152. Id.
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individual from paying child support. 153 The court explained
that
respondent’s constitutional entitlement to avoid procreation does
not encompass a right to avoid a child support obligation simply
because another private person has not fully respected his desires
in this regard. However unfairly respondent may have been
treated by petitioner’s failure to allow him an equal voice in the
decision to conceive a child, such a wrong does not rise to the level
of a constitutional violation. 154
Given this jurisprudence, it was at the very least
surprising that the A.Z. court would justify its holding by
suggesting that it would not enforce the contract against
him because that would “require him to become a parent
over his present objection to such an undertaking.” 155 In
many cases in which men were required to take on the
obligations of parenthood against their will, it was at least
claimed that there would have been no sexual relations in
the first place but for the explicit assurance that conception
could not occur. In contrast, conception was the goal in
A.Z.—the desire not to be a parent was only manifested
after conception had already taken place.
153. Id.
154. Id. at 716. Also see Wallis v. Smith, where the court explained:
As time went by, Smith changed her mind. She chose to stop taking
birth control pills, but never informed Wallis of her decision. Wallis
continued their intimate relationship, and Smith became pregnant.
Smith carried the fetus to term and gave birth to a normal, healthy girl
on November 27, 1998.
22 P.3d 682, 683 (N.M. Ct. App. 2001). Additionally, the court in Wallis
explained that, “this case boils down to whether sound public policy would
permit our courts to require Smith to indemnify Wallis for child support under
the circumstances of this case.” Id. at 684. The Wallis court then concluded that,
“[m]aking each parent financially responsible for the conception and birth of
children also illuminates a strong public policy that makes paramount the
interests of the child.” Id. Similarly, the court in Hughes v. Hutt reasoned:
[T]he possibility of fabricated accusations, the less than certain
effectiveness of birth control methods, and the fact that claims like
appellant’s, if successful, could result in the denial of support to
innocent children whom the Support Law was designed to protect, all
illustrate that allegations of a mother’s failure to use birth control have
absolutely no place in a proceeding to determine child support.
455 A.2d 623, 625 (Pa. 1983).
155. A.Z. v. B.Z., 725 N.E.2d 1051, 1059 (Mass. 2000).
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The cases involving the unwilling fathers are
distinguishable in that none of these individuals would face
the prospect of becoming a father years after conception had
taken place. 156 It is perhaps for this reason that the A.Z.
court worried about the lack of a duration clause in the
agreement. Yet, good drafting would avoid the difficulties
envisioned by the court—there could be a clause suggesting
that the embryos could not be implanted after a certain
number of years or, perhaps, were the couple to separate.
Suppose that the duration problem could not be solved
by better drafting. Even so, it is not as if the duration
problem does not arise in other contexts. For example, a
father might be asked to pay years of child support that he
had wrongly assumed would never be requested. 157 Indeed,
an individual donating sperm to help create a child might
be found liable for child support years later. 158
A.Z. was on notice that his agreeing to allow B.Z. to
have control of the embryos should the couple separate
might result in his becoming a non-marital father.
Individuals who had even less reason to believe that their
sexual relations might result in the birth of a child have
nonetheless been held to be legally responsible for the
children biologically related to them. For example, one
individual had paternal obligations imposed, because semen
allegedly produced during oral sex was then vaginally
implanted, resulting in a live birth. 159 A separate issue
156. See Apel, supra note 112, at 679 (“One of the especially burdensome
aspects of attaching legal paternity to any subsequently produced offspring is
that embryos can be kept in a cryopreserved state for at least a decade, if not
longer.”).
157. See, e.g., Child Support Enforcement Div. of Ala. v. Brenckle, 675 N.E.2d
390, 391 (Mass. 1997) (enforcing child support order requiring him to pay
support owed since 1979).
158. See Lucy Carne, Must Pay Support 18 Yrs. Later; $perm Wail by Donor,
N.Y. POST, Dec. 2, 2007, at 4 (“A sperm donor who sent gifts signed ‘Dad’ to his
biological son has been slapped with a child-support order, 18 years after
helping his friend get pregnant.”); Vic Vela, Sperm Donor Ordered to Pay Child
Support: Appeals Court Says Man’s Active Parenting Role Makes Him Liable,
ALBUQUERQUE J. (N.M.), July 31, 2008, at A1. But see Ferguson v. McKiernan,
940 A.2d 1236, 1238 (Pa. 2007) (enforcing an agreement between sperm donor
and donee that donor would not be held responsible for supporting any child
born of the donation).
159. See State v. Frisard, where the court explained:
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would be whether such an unwilling father would have a
cause of action for intentional inflictions of emotional
distress. 160
The A.Z. court’s announced unwillingness to force
someone to become a parent against his will, if taken to the
extreme, could result in manifest injustice. Consider, for
example, Carol, who knew that she had only a short amount
of time before she would no longer be able to produce eggs,
e.g., because she would have to undergo chemotherapy or
radiotherapy that would make her sterile. Because eggs did
not freeze nearly as well as embryos, 161 she asked her
boyfriend, David, to provide sperm so that embryos might
be created and frozen. He assured her that he understood
her situation, and would never object to her implanting any
of the embryos thereby created. Were Carol to have
successful treatment and then wish to make use of the
embryos, it would be manifestly unjust to allow her exboyfriend David to refuse to have the embryos implanted
because he did not wish to become a genetic parent. After
all, but for David’s promise that the embryos could be used,
Carol might have gotten sperm from an anonymous donor.
The evidence of paternity consisted of plaintiff’s affidavit in which she
named defendant as the father of the child, admitted that she had
sexual intercourse with him in September of 1983, and further claimed
that she did not have sexual intercourse with any other man thirty
days prior to or thirty days after the date of conception which was
estimated to be September 1, 1983. In addition, the results of the blood
testing showed a 99.9994% probability of paternity as compared to an
untested, unrelated, random person of the Caucasian population.
Moreover, defendant’s own testimony showed that he had some sort of
sexual contact with plaintiff around the time frame of alleged
conception, although he denied that they had sexual intercourse.
694 So. 2d 1032, 1035-36 (La. Ct. App. 1997).
160. See Phillips v. Irons, No. 1-03-2992, 2005 WL 4694579, at *1 (Ill. App. Ct.
Feb. 22, 2005) (“On or around February 19, 1999, and March 19, 1999,
defendant ‘intentionally engaged in oral sex with [plaintiff] so that she could
harvest [his] semen and artificially inseminate herself,’ and ‘did artificially
inseminate herself.’” (alterations in original)). The court remanded the case,
permitting his suit for intentional infliction of emotional distress to proceed. Id.
at *1, 6.
161. At one point, frozen embryos could be stored much longer than frozen
eggs. See Yang, supra note 24, at 592 (“While eggs can only be frozen for a short
time, preembryos and sperm can be stored indefinitely.”).
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1195
Such a case would not appropriately be described as
simply a battle between two progenitors, one but not the
other wanting to be a parent. 162 Rather, by promising that
the embryos could later be used, David induced Carol to
forego any other ways whereby she might create embryos. 163
While some commentators believe that it would be unlikely
in such a scenario that the embryos would not be
implanted, 164 those cases requiring contemporaneous
consent for implantation counsel otherwise and, indeed,
implantation was not permitted in the case in Great Britain
upon which this hypothetical was based. 165
There are other ways in which detrimental reliance
issues are implicated in the context of the creation of
embryos. Harvesting eggs involves a variety of risks, 166 and
162. One commentator seems not to appreciate the detrimental reliance aspect
of such a case. See Tim Annett, Commentary, Balancing Competing Interests
over Frozen Embryos: The Judgment of Solomon? Evans v. United Kingdom, 14
MED. L. REV. 425, 429 (2006) (“[The argument that the woman should be allowed
to implant in this case] is problematic because it rests on the dubious premise
that men have a lesser interest in what happens to their gametes than women
do with their gametes.”).
163. Compare this to Ellen Waldman, who explains:
With embryos already safely retrieved and fertilized, women are
insulated from fear about their waning capacity to produce viable eggs.
Secure in the knowledge that the embryos exist for future use, their
owners need not take additional precautions such as freezing eggs or
retrieving additional eggs for fertilization with anonymous donors.
Waldman, supra note 69, at 1055.
164. See Robertson, supra note 81, at 1021 (“It is unlikely that the gamete or
embryo providers will be able to revoke their consent if the recipient has
significantly relied on the other’s promise to provide gametes for their
reproductive use.”).
165. See April J. Walker, His, Hers or Ours?―Who Has the Right to Determine
the Disposition of Frozen Embryos after Separation or Divorce?, 16 BUFF.
WOMEN’S L.J. 39, 53-55 (2008) (discussing the case of Natalie Evans and
Howard Johnson, upon which this hypothetical is based).
166. See Shelly R. Petralia, who explains:
The risks associated with the medication the woman must consume
prior to and after egg retrieval include bruising and soreness with any
injectable medications as well as ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome
which “can lead to dehydration, large amounts of fluid accumulation in
the abdominal and lung cavities, blood clotting disorders, and kidney
damage.”
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a woman might not be willing to undergo those risks unless
she had had assurance that any frozen embryos created
could eventually be used by her. 167
Of course, if she knew ex ante that any assurances made
would be unenforceable, then it might be less reasonable to
rely on them. 168 However, in many if not most of these cases,
the promises are being made by a romantic partner, which
presumably would provide some independent reason to
believe that the promises would be honored in the future.
Further, the notice argument cuts both ways. Were it clear
that such promises were enforceable, an individual would be
more careful before inducing someone else to detrimentally
rely on the promise that the embryos would be available for
implantation at a later date.
In cases involving a subsequent change of mind
regarding the use of the embryos, it simply will not do to
point out that the partner who now blocks implantation of
Petralia, supra note 63, at 107-08 (citation omitted); see also Ellen Waldman,
who explains:
To induce production of a large number of eggs, donors are injected
intramuscularly with hormones, known as gonadotropins, during a
process known as super-ovulation induction. Typical side-effects from
this process include breast tenderness, fluid retention, mood swings,
irritability, and abdominal discomfort. More threatening is the risk of
ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (“OHSS”), which occurs in 1 to 2%
of patients undergoing super-ovulation induction. OHSS is a severe
condition, which can lead to breathing difficulties, temporary kidney
non-function, and arterial and venous thrombosis. In some instances, it
can be life-threatening. Additionally, exposure to gonadotropins has
been associated with slightly elevated risks of breast-cancer
Waldman, supra note 69, at 1053 (footnotes omitted).
167. See Cohen, supra note 48, at 1166 (“[S]ome individuals are unwilling to
bear the financial costs or health risks of IVF in the first place without
assurance that preembryos not immediately implanted will be available for
future use . . . .”).
168. See Carl H. Coleman, who explains:
The problem with the reliance argument, however, is that the law
protects reliance only if it is “reasonable” to rely on a commitment in a
particular case. If it were clear that decisions about the future
disposition of frozen embryos were not enforceable, it would no longer
be reasonable to rely on the enforceability of disposition decisions made
in advance.
Coleman, supra note 55, at 123-24.
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the frozen embryos did not cause the other partner to lose
his or her procreative capacity. 169 The frozen embryos might
well have been created with both parties knowing that one
of the partners would lose his or her procreative capacity in
the future, whether because of cancer treatments or simply
growing older. Precisely because both parties knew at the
time the initial agreement was made that naturally
occurring conditions would prevent the creation of the
embryos in the future, the claim that the individual now
blocking use of the embryos has no responsibility for the
other’s plight is at the very least disingenuous.
Advances in egg-freezing technology might ameliorate
some of the difficulties pointed to here. 170 For example,
someone like Carol, 171 who knew that she would soon lose
her ability to produce eggs, would be able to freeze her eggs
—she would not then need someone else’s permission to use
them in the future as she might were she to have created
frozen embryos. Further, more generally, women without
romantic partners 172 might well take advantage of eggfreezing during their most fertile years. 173 However,
members of a couple using IVF to have a child together
169. See Carl H. Coleman, who argues:
It is not as if the partner who objects to the use of the embryos was the
cause of the other partner’s inability to have genetic offspring. Rather,
the inability to have children is the result of exterual [sic] factors, such
as age or physiological impairment. The objecting partner should not be
forced to experience the burdens of unwanted genetic parenthood to
remedy a situation he did nothing to create.
Id. at 83-84.
170. See Steve Connor, Frozen Embryos: The Future for IVF, INDEPENDENT
(United Kingdom), Jan. 13, 2009, at 1 (“But the advances made at the Oxford
Fertility Unit (OFU) will make freezing eggs a more attractive proposition for
many couples. The procedure reduces the need for repeated cycles of hormone
therapy and egg extraction, which can be unpleasant and result in serious sideeffects such as polycystic ovary syndrome.”).
171. See supra text accompanying note 161.
172. Freeze Frame: Women Wait for ‘Mr Right,’ CANBERRA TIMES, Oct. 31, 2006,
at 5 (“Career women who want a family are choosing to freeze their eggs for
later use in order to remove the pressure to find Mr Right, research shows.”).
173. Mark Henderson, Boost for Women Keen to Put Family on Ice, TIMES
(London), June 17, 2008, at 3 (“These advances may encourage more women to
freeze eggs as a way of preserving their fertility, which starts to decline steeply
when from the mid-thirties.”).
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would create embryos, and would presumably freeze any
extra viable embryos for future implantation should the
need arise. 174 Thus, even with technological advances in the
cryopreservation of eggs, the difficulties pointed to here will
likely continue to be litigated in the future.
Where the intentions of the parties were clear at the
time the embryos were made, and there had been
detrimental reliance on a promise made at that time, a
strong argument can be made that the promise should be
enforceable. Sometimes, however, it is rather difficult to
determine exactly what the parties promised each other.
This lack of clarity may put the courts in a very difficult
position, as was illustrated in a New Jersey case.
C. J.B.
In J.B. v. M.B., 175 the New Jersey Supreme Court was
asked to decide who would have the right to determine the
disposition of frozen embryos. J.B. and M.B. had difficulty
conceiving and decided to make use of IVF. 176 They created
eleven preembryos, four of which were implanted. 177 The
remaining embryos were frozen. 178
A daughter was born to them in March, 1996, but they
separated later that year. 179 At that point, J.B. informed
M.B. that she wanted the remaining preembryos
discarded. 180 M.B. claimed that prior to undergoing the IVF
174. Compare this to Steve Connor, who explains:
Women having IVF treatment on the NHS should as a matter of
routine be offered the chance to freeze their “spare” embryos instead of
discarding them because it was safer and more cost effective than
repeatedly using fresh embryos, Dr Child said. Findings from the study
suggested that if embryo freezing was more common at NHS hospitals,
its use might avoid the expense and, more importantly, the risks of
over-stimulating the production of further eggs by hormones, which can
lead to fertility complications.
Connor, supra note 170, at 1, 4.
175. 783 A.2d 707 (N.J. 2001).
176. See id. at 709.
177. See id. at 710.
178. See id.
179. See id.
180. See id.
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procedure they had agreed that any unused preembryos
would not be destroyed, but would be used by J.B. or
donated to an infertile couple. 181 J.B. denied that any such
understanding had been reached. 182
The J.B. court believed it unnecessary to remand the
case to determine whether the couple in fact had agreed
that the embryos would not be destroyed, reasoning that
even if it were “possible to enter into a valid agreement at
that time irrevocably deciding the disposition of preembryos
in circumstances such as we have here, a formal,
unambiguous memorialization of the parties’ intentions
would be required to confirm their joint determination.” 183
Because there was nothing written to that effect, the court
saw no need for a remand.
Certainly, having the individuals state their intentions
in writing at the time that they enroll in a program can
prevent a variety of problems from occurring later.
Memories are not infallible in the best of circumstances, and
the pressures and emotions associated with a divorce would
only exacerbate the difficulties in accurately representing
previous intentions. Yet, the court was not implying that it
would have required donation or implantation had there
been a writing indicating the parties’ former intentions. On
the contrary, the J.B. court adopted the A.Z. approach,
suggesting that it would “enforce agreements entered into
at the time in vitro fertilization is begun, subject to the
right of either party to change his or her mind about
disposition up to the point of use or destruction of any
stored preembryos.” 184
The court rejected that M.B.’s right to procreate would
be denied by allowing the embryos to be discarded, both
because he already was a father, and because he could make
use of IVF again if necessary. 185 The court contrasted M.B.’s
situation with J.B.’s, noting that her right not to be a parent
might be lost through embryo donation, because successful
implantation “would result in the birth of her biological
181. Id.
182. Id. at 712.
183. Id. at 714.
184. Id. at 719.
185. Id. at 717.
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child and could have life-long emotional and psychological
repercussions.” 186 Of course, it was somewhat misleading to
suggest that J.B.’s right not to be a parent was at issue,
since she already was a parent. Rather, at issue was her
right not to be a parent again or, perhaps, her right not to
have a biological child of hers raised by a stranger.
Perhaps the court was correct to consider the psychic
repercussions of having “been forced to become a biological
parent against his or her will,” 187 although it was unclear
why the J.B. court was unwilling to give much weight to the
negative psychic effects on M.B. that might be caused by the
embryo destruction. Suppose, for example, that destroying
the embryos would cause him to have repeated nightmares
where the frozen pre-embryos (each perhaps having a face
like his daughter’s) would call out for him to save them. Add
to this the fact that M.B. testified that he had strong
religious objections to the destruction of the pre-embryos, 188
and it would not seem implausible that he might have had
life-long emotional difficulties caused by the court granting
J.B.’s request. Those difficulties might be exacerbated if for
some reason he subsequently lost his ability to father a
child.
It is hard to fathom why “forced” genetic parenthood
would necessarily be more damaging psychologically than
would one’s losing the opportunity to be a genetic parent.
Presumably, for some, being a genetic parent against one’s
current wishes would be quite damaging, although for
others it would not. The same might be said for someone
who was deprived of the opportunity of being a genetic
parent. Further, for some, the initial hurt would never
disappear, whereas for others it would dissipate over time.
Precisely because the reactions to being an unwilling
genetic parent of a child raised by someone else would vary
greatly, both at a particular point in time and across time,
such feelings do not provide a plausible justification for a
rule giving the unwilling progenitor veto power over the
186. Id.
187. Id. at 718.
188. See id. at 710.
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wishes of the other progenitor. 189 But this is the effect of the
rule suggested by the J.B. court. 190
Nor can such a requirement be justified by claiming
that this is simply a rule supporting responsible
parenting, 191 as if the refusal to allow implantation would be
for the sake of the child. 192 On the contrary, in most if not all
cases it would be better for the child if the embryo were
implanted. Those wishing to implant the embryos might
well be very responsible parents who would help the child
flourish and, in any event, the issue implicated does not
involve which home would best promote the interests of the
child 193 but whether the child will exist at all. While there
may be ways to justify adoption of the contemporaneous
consent model, appeal to the best interests of the child
should not be among them. In most if not all cases, it would
be better for the child to live than never to exist, 194 so using
189. Some commentators seem to believe that the fact that some might feel
this connection to their genetic children justifies never implanting embryos
against the wishes of one of the progenitors. See, e.g., Coleman, supra note 55,
at 107 (“That a person could be absolved of the legal and financial obligations of
biological parenthood is not an adequate response. For some people, it may be
impossible to have genetic offspring and remain indifferent to their
predicament.”).
190. See Waldman, supra note 69, at 1032-33 (“With varying degrees of
insincerity and ingenuity, the courts have actively worked to avoid creating
unwanted genetic ties. They have stressed the burdens of ‘forced parenthood’
while dismissing the hardships associated with creating existing embryos and
the hurdles blocking the way to parenthood through other means.”); Note, The
Uncertainty of Embryo Disposition Law, supra note 4, at 498 (“Although the
courts have differing opinions on how to resolve disputes over embryos, one
clear principle has emerged: a court will not force parenthood on an unwilling
party.”).
191. See Coleman, supra note 55, at 107 (“[A]n inalienable rights approach
also would promote the value of parental responsibility.”).
192. See id. at 108 (“[I]t is not the exchange of money per se that creates the
risk of commodification but the application of the rules of market place
transactions to fundamental decisions about a child’s fate.”).
193. See id. (“The idea that ‘a deal’s a deal,’ when applied to decisions about
the custody of a child, treats the parent-child relationship like an ownership
interest in property rather than a human connection between two living
beings.”).
194. For a discussion of some of the kinds of cases in which children might
have been better off never having been born, i.e., wrongful life cases, see
generally Mark Strasser, Wrongful Life, Wrongful Birth, Wrongful Death, and
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the interests of the child as a reason to justify a policy
precluding implantation simply is not credible.
While the best interests test presumably would counsel
in favor of implantation, that test may not be especially
helpful in resolving other disputes in this area. On a best
interests analysis, what role should a biological connection
to the embryo play in the right to decide the disposition of
those embryos? That issue, among others, was raised in a
case decided by the Washington Supreme Court.
D. Litowitz
In Litowitz v. Litowitz, 195 the Washington Supreme
Court was asked to determine who should have custody of
two cryopreserved embryos. Becky had a hysterectomy
shortly after she and David had their first child together,
leaving her unable to produce eggs or carry a fetus to
term. 196 Nonetheless, Becky and David created five embryos,
using eggs from a donor and his sperm. 197 Three of those
embryos were implanted in a surrogate, resulting in the
birth of a daughter. 198 The two remaining embryos were
cryopreserved. 199
The contract signed with the egg donor specified that
the intended parents (the Litowitzes) had the sole right to
determine the disposition of the eggs. 200 The agreement
between the Clinic and the Litowitzes stated that after the
frozen embryos had remained with the clinic for five years,
they would be thawed and destroyed unless the Clinic and
both Litowitzes agreed that the frozen embryos should
remain frozen for a longer period. 201
the Right to Refuse Treatment: Can Reasonable Jurisdictions Recognize All But
One?, 64 MO. L. REV. 29 (1999).
195. 48 P.3d 261 (Wash. 2002).
196. Id. at 262.
197. Id.
198. Id.
199. Id.
200. Id. at 263.
201. Id. at 263-64.
2009]
AWARDING EMBRYOS UPON DIVORCE
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The Litowitzes separated before the birth of their
daughter. 202 In the dissolution proceedings, David said that
he wanted custody of the frozen embryos so that he could
donate them to another couple, and Becky said that she
wanted them so that she could have them implanted in a
surrogate and then raise the child or children herself. 203
Using a best interest analysis, the trial judge awarded the
embryos to David, reasoning that it would be better for the
child to be raised by a couple than by a single parent. 204
The agreement between the fertility center and the
Litowitzes was dated March 25, 1996, 205 and the trial court
decision was issued December 11, 1998. 206 The decision
handed down by the Washington Supreme Court was dated
June 13, 2002. 207 This last date is important, because more
than five years had passed between the time the agreement
with the clinic was signed and the time that the high court
issued its opinion. 208 The Washington Supreme Court noted
that the frozen embryos might not even exist 209no
evidence was presented that the contract had been
extended 210 and the contract had specified that absent a
request to extend the cryopreservation the embryos would
be thawed and not allowed to develop further after five
years had elapsed. 211 However, if they did exist, the court
held that they must be thawed and destroyed per the
contractual instructions. 212 Thus, the Washington Supreme
Court did not grant the requested relief of either Becky or
202. Id. at 264.
203. See id.
204. See id.
205. Id. at 263.
206. Id. at 264.
207. Id. at 261.
208. Id. at 268-69.
209. Id. at 269.
210. Id.
211. See id. at 269.
212. See id. at 271. In his dissenting opinion, Judge Sanders writes that “the
majority’s disposition apparently calls for the destruction of unborn human life
even when, or if, both contracting parties agreed the preembryos should be
brought to fruition as a living child reserving their disagreement over custody
for judicial determination.” Id. at 274 (Sanders, J., dissenting).
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David, opting instead to order that neither be given custody
of the embryos.
There are at least two reasons why the court’s
disposition of the case was less than satisfying. First, it may
well be that the Litowitzes had agreed to extend the
cryopreservation of the two remaining pre-embryos, at least
until a final determination on the merits had been made.
The court might not have been informed of that agreement,
because the issue before the court was who would have
custody of the embryos rather than whether they should be
destroyed. Yet, if the cryopreservation period had in fact
been extended, then the court would have decided that the
embryos should be destroyed, contrary to the intentions of
the parties and the contractual language itself.
Second, the Litowitzes sought a court determination of
custody long before the five years had elapsed, and it might
be thought that their having sought court intervention
would itself toll the five-year deadline. 213 Thus, even if they
had not formally agreed to extend the deadline, one might
infer such a desire both because they had sought a custody
determination long before the deadline and because neither
had requested that the embryos be destroyed. That the
court nonetheless ordered their destruction has led some
commentators to read the decision as manifesting a strong
bias against implantation. 214
It may be, however, that the court did not have a bias
against implantation but, instead, was deciding the case
this way so that it would not be forced to face other issues.
For example, Becky had argued that she stood in the shoes
of one of the progenitors by virtue of contract, although the
court refused to address that issue. 215 The court agreed that
Becky and David had equal rights to the eggs, 216 but did not
agree that they therefore had equal rights to the pre213. See id. at 272 (“[T]he contract still would not support the majority’s
outcome because the contractual time period was tolled by the timely
commencement of this litigation as a matter of law.”).
214. See Waldman, supra note 69, at 1032 (“The court’s contrived reading of
the fertility clinic forms reveals its determination to reach the desired goal of
embryo destruction.”).
215. See Litowitz, 48 P.3d at 271.
216. Id. at 267.
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AWARDING EMBRYOS UPON DIVORCE
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embryos. 217 Nonetheless, by issuing a ruling that did not
reflect the wishes of either party, the court reserved for
another day which, if any, progenitor rights could be
acquired by contract. Further, by not awarding the preembryos to anyone, the court was not forced to address,
even implicitly, whether a best interest analysis would be
appropriate when determining who would receive the preembryos. Nor was the court forced to decide how heavily a
genetic connection would be weighed in such a best interest
analysis or whether a constructive genetic connection (via
contract) would be treated as if it were an actual genetic
connection in a best interest analysis. Nor was the court
forced to decide whether placement would be better with a
single parent (who had an actual or constructive genetic
connection to the embryos) rather than with a couple with
no such connection. All of these questions would be left to be
decided at a later date.
It is difficult to know how to read Litowitz. On the one
hand, it is the only state supreme court opinion to order the
destruction of frozen embryos when neither of those entitled
to make a decision about the disposition of the embryos
wanted that result. On the other hand, it might be that both
of these decisionmakers would have preferred the
destruction of the embryos to the other individual’s being
awarded custody of the embryos. The court’s claim to have
been enforcing the contract or simply carrying out the
wishes of the couple was not credible, although the court did
manage to avoid the thorny questions that would have been
raised had it been forced to make a custody determination.
E. Witten
Some of the questions that the Washington court went
out of its way to avoid were discussed by the Iowa Supreme
Court in In re Marriage of Witten, 218 where the court was
asked to determine which member of a divorcing couple
should have custody of the remaining frozen embryos. 219
Tamera wished to have the embryos implanted in herself or
217. Id. at 268 (“Under that contract, Petitioner and Respondent would have
equal rights to the eggs. But the egg donor contract does not relate to the
preembryos which resulted from subsequent sperm fertilization of the eggs.”).
218. 672 N.W.2d 768 (Iowa 2003).
219. Id. at 772-73.
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in a surrogate so that she might have a genetically related
child. 220 While Tamera was adamant in her opposition to the
embryos’ destruction, she was unwilling to donate them to
someone else. 221 Trip, her ex-husband, did not want the
embryos destroyed, but also did not want his ex-wife to use
them. 222 He did not oppose donating the embryos to another
couple, 223 but did not seem to want to become a father
himself. 224
After discussing differing models of how to decide who
should be awarded custody of embryos, 225 the court rejected
that the best interests test was appropriate, reasoning that
“the factors that are relevant in determining the custody of
children in dissolution cases are simply not useful in
determining how decisions will be made with respect to the
disposition and use of a divorced couple’s fertilized eggs.” 226
For example, the court noted that the best interests
standard seeks to maximize physical and emotional contact
between the child and each of her parents, 227 whereas at
issue here was “whether the parties will be parents at
all.” 228 The court further noted that it would be at best
premature to decide which parent could “most effectively
raise the child when the ‘child’ is still frozen in a storage
facility.” 229 The court was correct that various factors that
would be relevant in a best interest analysis were simply
unknown at this stage. For example, there would be no
evidence regarding which parent had a closer bond with the
child or which parent would be more likely to provide a
home in which the child would thrive.
220. Id. at 772.
221. Id. at 772-73.
222. Id.
223. Id.
224. Id. at 780 (“Tamera contends the contract at issue here violates public
policy because it allows a person who has agreed to participate in an in vitro
fertilization program to later change his mind about becoming a parent. . . .
[W]e accept Tamera’s assertion for purposes of the present discussion . . . .”).
225. See id. at 774.
226. Id. at 776.
227. Id. at 775.
228. Id.
229. Id.
2009]
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Yet, the court’s point was somewhat misleadingthe
comparative parenting skills of the progenitors was not
really at issue in Witten, since there was no indication that
Trip wanted to be a parent. Rather, were a comparative
analysis appropriate, it would presumably have been
between Tamera and the potential adoptive parents to
whom Trip would be willing to donate the embryos.
Suppose that Tamera and Trip were not divorcing and
that they had wanted to make use of the embryos that they
had created. There would be no call for use of a best
interests analysis, comparing the parenting abilities of
Tamera and Trip to the parenting abilities of potential
adoptive couples. Rather, Tamera and Trip would have been
allowed to have the embryos implanted.
Here, Trip manifested no interest in being a parent
himself. He was willing to donate the embryos, so he clearly
did not believe that he would suffer great harm by being the
genetic parent of a child raised by someone else. Given this
set of desires, it is not at all clear why Tamera’s desire to
raise the child whom she would have helped to create
should not have outweighed his desire for her not to be the
parent. There was no indication that she would have been a
bad parent, and his objections might have had nothing to do
with the interests of the child. Indeed, he could have been
objecting to her being the parent as a way of getting back at
her for acts she committed during the marriage that he
believed were wrong or unfair.
After ruling out use of a best interest analysis, the
Witten court considered whether the initial agreement
should be enforced. 230 Regrettably, while the agreement with
the facility discussed what should be done with the embryos
in the event that one or both of the parties died, it did not
expressly address what should be done in the event of
divorce. 231 Nonetheless, the court interpreted the general
provision governing the release of embryos to control,
whether or not the marriage was intact. 232 That provision
stated that “the embryos would not be transferred, released,
230. See id. at 776.
231. Id. at 773.
232. Id.
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or discarded without ‘the signed approval’ of both Tamera
and Trip.” 233
Tamera had argued that her right to bear children
should override the prior agreement. 234 The court agreed
that the initial agreement should not be enforced, 235
although that ruling did not mean that Tamera would be
able to implant any of the seventeen embryos at issue. 236
Rather the court took seriously that enforcing an agreement
entered into at some prior time would not give adequate
weight to the difficulties involved in predicting how the
individuals would feel sometime in the future. 237 The court
then discussed whether contracts should be enforceable if
one of the parties has had a change of heart, 238 reaching the
conclusion that “judicial enforcement of an agreement
between a couple regarding their future family and
reproductive choices would be against the public policy of
this state.” 239 The court described the model it was
proposing—“the requirement of contemporaneous mutual
consent”: 240
Under that model, no transfer, release, disposition, or use of the
embryos can occur without the signed authorization of both
donors. If a stalemate results, the status quo would be
maintained. The practical effect will be that the embryos are
stored indefinitely unless both parties can agree to destroy the
fertilized eggs. 241
Applying the model to the case at hand, the court noted
that the parties could not reach a mutually satisfactory
agreement. 242 The court concluded that this meant that
233. Id.
234. Id. at 774.
235. See id. at 782.
236. See id. at 772 (“At the time of trial seventeen fertilized eggs remained in
storage at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC).”).
237. See id. at 777 (quoting passages from two law review articles with
approval).
238. Id. at 773-74.
239. Id. at 782.
240. Id. at 783.
241. Id.
242. Id.
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nothing could be done with the embryos until an agreement
had been reached, with the party or parties opposing
destruction being responsible for the costs of continuing the
cryopreservation. 243
At least one issue raised by the possibility that the
status quo would have to be maintained for the indefinite
future was that the facility would have to preserve the
embryos indefinitely. 244 However, the court was not
imposing an additional obligation on the facility 245 but
instead was merely suggesting that the facility was bound
by the original contract. 246
Arguably, the interests of an individual who has no
other way of becoming a genetic parent and who is willing
to shoulder all of the responsibilities of parenthood 247 should
outweigh the interests of someone who does not care what
happens to the embryos as long as his former partner does
not get them. 248 But the Witten court rejected that courts
should perform such a balancing test, arguing that it was
inappropriate to “substitute the courts as decision makers
in this highly emotional and personal area.” 249
Witten is unusual in a few respects. For example, many
of the other cases involved one individual asserting the
243. See id.
244. See id.
245. See id. at 783 n.4 (“We do not mean to imply that UNMC’s obligation to
store the embryos extends beyond the ten-year period provided in the parties’
contract.”).
246. The Witten court cautioned:
Our decision should not be construed, however, to mean that
disposition agreements between donors and fertility clinics have no
validity at all. We recognize a disposition or storage agreement serves
an important purpose in defining and governing the relationship
between the couple and the medical facility, ensuring that all parties
understand their respective rights and obligations.
Id. at 782.
247. See id. at 772 (“[Tamara] testified that upon a successful pregnancy she
would afford Trip the opportunity to exercise parental rights or to have his
rights terminated.”).
248. See Davis v. Davis, 842 S.W.2d 588, 604 (Tenn. 1992) (“The case would be
closer if Mary Sue Davis were seeking to use the preembryos herself, but only if
she could not achieve parenthood by any other reasonable means.”).
249. Witten, 672 N.W.2d at 779.
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right not to be a genetic parent and the other individual
wanting either to use or donate the embryos. Here, the
individual opposing his partner’s control of the embryos did
not assert the right not to be a genetic parent—on the
contrary, he was willing to be a genetic parent as long as his
ex-wife would not be raising the child.
There was no discussion in the opinion regarding why
Trip was opposed to his ex-wife parenting their children.
One cannot tell, for example, whether Trip had reservations
about Tamera’s parenting abilities or whether, instead, he
was simply being vengeful. Regardless of why in fact Trip
opposed Tamera being a parent, it should be clear that the
Witten opinion puts someone like Trip in a particularly
powerful position. For example, the court said that the
party opposing destruction of the embryos would bear the
costs of their cryopreservation. 250 Someone who wanted to
get back at an ex-spouse might well say that he or she had
no interest in cryopreserving the embryos, thereby shifting
the costs to his or her ex-spouse. Further, one could imagine
such a person imposing continuing psychic damage by
hinting that he or she might consent to the ex-spouse’s use
of the embryos sometime in the future—the ex-spouse might
well continue to be on an emotional rollercoaster when
considering the possibility of finally becoming a parent. Or
the embryos might in effect be held hostage—they would be
released for use only if the ex-spouse were willing to give up
something valuable in return, for example, in a property
settlement or in exchange for more favorable support terms.
The potential abuses of the contemporaneous consent
requirement have been ignored by the courts, which may be
one of the reasons that there had been a trend in favor of its
adoption. That said, however, that trend was rejected in two
recent decisions for reasons totally unrelated to the
potential abuses that might occur. 251
III. A RETURN TO THE DAVIS-KASS MODEL?
While there have been several decisions adopting the
contemporaneous consent model, two recent intermediate
appellate decisions may indicate that the pendulum is
250. See id. at 783.
251. See Roman v. Roman, 193 S.W.3d 40 (Tex. App. 2006); In re Marriage of
Dahl, 194 P.3d 835 (Or. Ct. App. 2008).
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swinging back towards the Davis-Kass model. In both of
these cases, the initial agreements were enforced, although
it is obviously too early to tell whether they are indicative of
a new trend. In any event, some of the facts included in
these cases are indicative of why the contemporaneous
consent model should not be adopted.
A. Roman
In Roman v. Roman, 252 a Texas appellate court
addressed whether Randy or Augusta Roman was entitled
to the remaining frozen embryos that the couple had
created. 253 The cryopreservation agreement included a
provision that the embryos would be discarded in the event
of divorce. 254
Augusta wished to have the embryos implanted so that
she could have biological children. 255 She was awarded the
embryos by the trial court and Randy appealed, 256 although
Augusta stated that he would have had no rights or
responsibilities with respect to any children born. 257
The Roman court summed up the case law from other
jurisdictions by noting “an emerging majority view that
written embryo agreements between embryo donors and
fertility clinics to which all parties have consented are valid
and enforceable so long as the parties have the opportunity
to withdraw their consent to the terms of the agreement.” 258
However, because Texas was not bound by those decisions,
the court attempted to discern local public policy in this
area of law. 259
252. 193 S.W.3d 40 (Tex. App. 2006).
253. See id. at 41-42. The court explained why it would use the term “embryo,”
explaining that, “[a]lthough ‘preembryo’ is a medically accurate term for a
zygote, or fertilized egg, that has not been implanted in a uterus, we will use the
term embryo for linguistic convenience.” Id. at 41 n.1.
254. Id. at 42.
255. Id. at 43.
256. Id. at 41.
257. Id. at 43.
258. Id. at 48.
259. See id.
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The court noted that according to Texas law a former
spouse will not be considered the parent of a child born
through an IVF procedure taking place after the divorce
unless the ex-spouse expressly consented to being
considered a parent of the child, notwithstanding the
divorce. 260 Even if the ex-spouse were to consent, that
consent could be withdrawn any time before the embryos
were implanted. 261 Thus, Texas law obviates the need for a
court to weigh whether it is more important for a child to be
supported by an unwilling parent than to respect the wishes
of the progenitor to have no connections to the child, instead
expressly stating that no such obligations will be imposed
unless affirmatively accepted. 262
The court also considered state policy with respect to
gestational surrogacy agreements. Texas law “specifically
authorizes a gestational mother, her husband if she is
married, each donor, and each intended parent to enter into
a written agreement that relinquishes all parental rights of
the gestational mother and provides that the intended
parents become the parents of the child,” 263 although Texas
law also permits the gestational surrogate, her husband,
and either of the intended parents to terminate the
agreement, as long as the termination occurs prior to the
pregnancy. 264 Thus, Texas public policy expressly
countenances use of IVF procedures, although a surrogate
could not be forced to participate against her will.
260. The Roman court quoted Texas law, pointing out:
“[I]f a marriage is dissolved before the placement of eggs, sperm, or
embryos, the former spouse is not a parent of the resulting child unless
the former spouse consented in a record that if assisted reproduction
were to occur after a divorce the former spouse would be a parent of the
child.”
Id. at 49 (quoting TEX. FAM. CODE ANN. § 160.706(a) (Vernon 2002)).
261. See id. (“This section also provides that consent of the former spouse may
be withdrawn at any time before the placement of eggs, sperm, or embryos.”
(citing TEX. FAM. CODE ANN. § 160.706(b) (Vernon 2002))).
262. Cf. supra notes 141-54 and accompanying text (discussing obligations
imposed on unwilling parents).
263. Roman, 193 S.W.3d at 49 (citing TEX. FAM. CODE ANN. § 160.754(a)
(Vernon Supp. 2005)).
264. See id. (citing TEX. FAM. CODE ANN. § 160.759(a) (Vernon Supp. 2005)).
2009]
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After explaining the implications of these laws, the
court unexceptionally noted that “the public policy of this
State would permit a husband and wife to enter voluntarily
into an agreement, before implantation, that would provide
for an embryo’s disposition in the event of a contingency,
such as divorce, death, or changed circumstances.” 265
However, surprisingly, the court concluded that “allowing
the parties voluntarily to decide the disposition of frozen
embryos in advance of cryopreservation, subject to mutual
change of mind, jointly expressed, best serves the existing
public policy of this State and the interests of the parties.” 266
Yet, the court did not offer a plausible construction of
the laws that it had just recounted. Certainly, the court was
correct to suggest that Texas law permitted IVF agreements
to be made. Yet, when deciding between (1) enforcing the
initial agreement, and (2) requiring contemporaneous
consent, the relevant question is not whether IVF
agreements are ever enforceable, but whether an initial IVF
agreement should be enforced when one of the parties has
since had a change of heart. Given that Texas law (1) allows
an individual to withdraw from a surrogacy agreement,
thereby making it a nullity, and (2) allows a former spouse
to have a change of heart and not be legally recognized as a
parent in a case involving post-divorce implantation, it
would seem that Texas law does not require enforcement of
initial agreements. On the contrary, in both of the scenarios
discussed by the court, Texas law does not enforce the
original agreement if one of the parties has had a change of
heart and, thus, Texas law is less plausibly construed as
requiring a mutual change of mind for an agreement to be
invalidated.
That said, the claim here is not that Texas law requires
implementation of the contemporaneous consent model. For
example, while Texas law permits an ex-spouse to withdraw
his or her consent to being a parent as long as that
revocation of consent occurs prior to implantation of the
embryo, Texas law does not require consent of the ex-spouse
in order for implantation to occur post-divorce. Thus, Texas
law would seem compatible with either a model requiring
contemporaneous consent or a model in which the initial
agreement would be enforceable.
265. Id. at 49-50.
266. Id. at 50 (emphasis added).
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Suppose that the Roman court had held that Texas
followed the apparent trend and required contemporaneous
consent for implantation to occur. Then, the provisions
regarding the imposition of parental responsibility might be
read as removing one of the stumbling blocks to gaining
contemporaneous consent—Tom might be willing to permit
his ex-spouse to have the embryos implanted as long as he
could be confident that he would not have to take on any
parental responsibilities should the implantation lead to a
live birth.
The Roman court rejected the contemporaneous consent
model, instead opting for the Davis-Kass model in which the
initial agreement is enforceable. Given the latter model, the
provisions
regarding
the
imposition
of
parental
responsibility serve a few purposes. For example, a possible
stumbling block to entering into such an agreement in the
first place is removed—one knows that even if one enters
into an IVF agreement one will still be able to reassess
whether one wants to be a parent if the relationship
between the adults breaks down prior to implantation.
Further, this provision prevents a court from imposing
parental obligations on an unwilling ex-spouse when
implantation occurs post-divorce. 267
The agreement entered into by the Romans stated that
if they were to divorce, the embryos would be discarded. 268
Yet another provision specified that the embryos should be
destroyed if the husband and wife could not agree about the
disposition of the embryos. 269 It might seem, then, that the
initial agreement covered the situation at hand. First, the
couple was divorcing, so that justified destruction of the
embryos. Second, prior to the time at which their divorce
was granted, the couple was married but unable to agree
about the disposition of the embryos, which provided an
independent justification for destroying the embryos.
Yet there was another provision in the document that
made the appropriate disposition much less clear-cut. The
language in the initial document was ambiguous with
267. See supra note 139 and accompanying text (noting this provision among
others and suggesting that a court might impose such obligations absent
express law to the contrary).
268. Roman, 193 S.W.3d at 51.
269. Id.
2009]
AWARDING EMBRYOS UPON DIVORCE
1215
respect to whether both parties had to agree before any
changes to the agreement could be made. The agreement
read: “We agree and acknowledge that we are voluntary
participants, but we understand that we are free to
withdraw our consent as to the disposition of our embryo(s)
and to discontinue participation by requesting relocation of
our embryo(s) to another suitable location at any time
without prejudice.” 270
While it is clear that the couple could together
subsequently decide that the directions about the
disposition did not reflect their current wishes, the
language left open whether a change of heart by one of the
individuals would suffice to alter the agreement. Ironically,
the court interpreted that section as permitting “a party to
withdraw consent to assisted reproduction procedures.” 271
However, the court noted:
Neither Randy nor Augusta withdrew consent to the provision in
the embryo agreement that the frozen embryos were to be
discarded in the event of divorce. Nor did they withdraw consent
to the provision within section 11 of the embryo agreementthat
if the parties could not agree on the disposition of the embryos,
the frozen embryos were to be discarded. Rather, their embryos
were still in the program, and the embryo agreement was still in
effect when the parties divorced. 272
The court may have been correct that Augusta had not
informed the clinic in writing that the agreement no longer
reflected her wishes, but it seems clear that Augusta had
changed her mind. For example, at trial Augusta rejected
that the embryos should be destroyed—instead, she said
that she wanted to use them herself. It is hard to
understand how she could be understood to be consenting to
their destruction when she was instead requesting that they
be awarded to her. At the very least, she had implicitly
withdrawn her consent to their destruction before the
divorce had been granted.
Even if it were correct that she had not withdrawn her
consent to the embryos’ destruction at the time of the
divorce, she was clearly withdrawing her consent post270. Id. at 51-52.
271. Id. at 54.
272. Id.
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divorce. But Texas law does not require that individuals
withdraw their consent to an assisted reproduction
agreement before they divorce. On the contrary, as the court
pointed out, Texas law permits individuals to withdraw
their consent to a proposed disposition as long as the
relevant procedure has not yet been initiated. 273
Even if the court had recognized that Augusta had
withdrawn her consent to the destruction of the embryos,
that would not have resolved all of the relevant concerns. A
separate issue would have been what to do with the
embryos. Perhaps, following Witten, they should have
continued to be cryopreserved. Or, perhaps, a balancing test
should have been performed, following the example set by
the Davis court. Indeed, arguably, the case before the
Roman court was analogous to the case before the Davis
court in that in neither case was there an enforceable
agreement before the court. In Davis, there had been no
discussion of what to do in the event of divorce, and in
Roman the consent to the previous agreement had been
withdrawn.
Yet there may have been good reason for the Roman
court to be reluctant to do a balancing test. In Davis, the
court was able to talk about Junior’s great reluctance to
bring children into the world whom he was not parenting. 274
But in Roman it was unclear whether Randy had strong
feelings about not having his genetic children in the world
when he would not be there to father them or whether,
instead, he was simply being spiteful. 275 Indeed, in all of the
other cases involving pre-embryos, implantation had been
attempted, even if unsuccessfully. Roman is the only case
among these in which the embryos had been created but
never implanted. 276 The court did not elaborate on why
Randy had revoked his consent to implantation. 277 All that
273. Id. (citing TEX. FAM. CODE ANN. § 160.706(b) (Vernon 2002) (“[C]onsent
. . . may be withdrawn . . . at any time before the placement of eggs, sperm, or
embryos)).
274. See supra notes 83-88 and accompanying text (discussing Junior’s clamed
aversion to bringing children into the world under the existing conditions).
275. See Roman, 193 S.W.3d at 54 (“[T]here was evidence that Randy had been
upset with Augusta in the two years prior to the scheduled implantation . . . .”).
276. See id. at 42.
277. See id.
2009]
AWARDING EMBRYOS UPON DIVORCE
1217
is clear is that thirteen eggs were harvested from Augusta,
six of which were successfully fertilized with Randy’s sperm,
three of which were cryopreserved, but none of which were
implanted. 278
Roman raises a variety of questions. Suppose, for
example, that the initial agreement had instead stated that
Augusta would have control of the embryos in the event of
divorce. It is unclear whether such an agreement would be
enforceable or whether, instead, an explicit or implicit
revocation of consent to such an agreement prior to the
divorce would nullify the agreement.
Some of the language of the Roman decision suggests
that an initial decision to give custody to Augusta would
have been enforceable, given the court’s citing Davis and
Kass with approval, 279 including the following passage from
Kass:
Advance directives, subject to mutual change of mind that must
be jointly expressed, both minimize misunderstandings and
maximize procreative liberty by reserving to the progenitors the
authority to make what is in the first instance a quintessentially
personal, private decision. Written agreements also provide the
certainty needed for effective operation of IVF programs. 280
Further, it should be noted that after considering the
trend in other states to require contemporaneous consent, 281
the Roman court rejected that approach and instead opted
for enforcement of the initial agreement. 282 Had the court
believed, for example, that an individual should never be
forced to be a parent against his or her will, the court would
presumably have opted for the contemporaneous consent
requirement. Thus, while Roman’s requiring destruction of
the embryos might seem to be in line with those cases
upholding the rights of an individual not to be a parent,
Roman suggests that the right not to be a parent might not
win the day if the initial agreement had been written
differently. The same might be said of a recent Oregon case.
278. See id.
279. See id. at 45-46.
280. Id. at 46 (quoting Kass v. Kass, 696 N.E.2d 174, 180 (N.Y. 1998)).
281. See id. at 45-48.
282. See id. at 50.
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B. Dahl
In In re Marriage of Dahl, 283 an Oregon appellate court
examined a trial court’s disposition of six frozen embryos in
a marriage dissolution. 284 The wife, Laura, testified that she
and her husband, Darrell, intended to use the embryos to
create a child for themselves and not to use them were the
marriage to end. 285 She further claimed that it was her
understanding that if she and her husband disagreed about
the disposition of the embryos, “she would have sole and
exclusive right to direct [Oregon Health and Science
University] to transfer or dispose of the embryos.” 286
The husband remembered things quite differently. For
example, he claimed that his signature on the agreement
with OHSU had not been notarized and that he had signed
the last page of the document without reading it. 287 He
testified that “the ‘embryos are life,’” 288 and he “opposed
their destruction or donation to science because ‘there’s no
pain greater than having participated in the demise of your
own child.’” 289 He wished to donate the embryos to someone
else trying to conceive. 290
Laura offered a number of arguments to support her
contention that the embryos should not be donated. While
in effect asking that the original agreement be enforced, 291
she also asserted her right not to be a genetic parent. 292
283. 194 P.3d 834 (Or. Ct. App. 2008).
284. See id. at 836 (“Soon after, the parties decided to dissolve their marriage.
The parties reached an agreement on all matters pertaining to the dissolution of
their marriage except for one: the disposition of six frozen embryos that
remained from the IVF process.”).
285. Id. at 837.
286. Id.
287. See id.
288. Id.
289. Id.
290. Id.
291. See id. at 838.
292. See id. at 837 (“[Laura] stated that, if she were to produce more children
genetically, she would not want someone other than her to raise them.”); id. at
838 (“[Laura] argues that, even if the embryos are subject to court disposition as
property, the court cannot award decision-making authority in a way that could
2009]
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1219
As an initial matter, the trial court found that the
parties had signed the agreement while a notary was
present, 293 suggesting that the husband simply had an
inaccurate memory of what had happened. 294 The signed
agreement “evinced the parties’ intent . . . at the time that
they participated in the creation of the embryos,” 295
although a separate issue was whether such an agreement
was enforceable.
Like the Davis court, 296 the Dahl court wrestled with
how to classify the embryos. The husband argued that he
should be awarded the embryos because that would be “a
just and proper distribution of the parties’ property,” 297
whereas the wife claimed that the embryos were not
property and thus could not be distributed in a dissolution
proceeding. 298
Rather than try to decide the correct way to
characterize the embryos themselves, the court shifted its
focus, instead discussing “whether the contractual right to
dispose of frozen embryos is ‘personal property’ for purposes
of the statute.” 299 While not entirely confident that the shift
to the right to dispose of the embryos solved all
difficulties, 300 the court nonetheless found that this right to
control the disposition of the embryos did fit within the
broad statutory definition of property. 301 Otherwise, the
result in the birth of a child over the objections of a source of the genetic
material.”).
293. Id. at 837.
294. Id. at 837.
295. Id. at 841.
296. See supra notes 16-48 and accompanying text (examining the Davis
discussion of whether embryos should be considered property).
297. Dahl, 194 P.3d at 837.
298. See id.
299. Id. at 838.
300. See id. at 838 (“Notwithstanding the apples-to-oranges comparison
between appreciation of assets and an intangible contractual right to dispose of
frozen embryos . . . .”); id. at 839 (“We acknowledge that there is some inherent
awkwardness in describing those contractual rights as ‘personal property’ . . .
.”).
301. Id. at 838.
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court suggested, the trial court would not have had the
power to distribute them. 302
The intermediate appellate court next sought to
determine what would be a “‘just and proper’ division”
under the statute. 303 This was no easy task, at least in part,
because this was not like other kinds of property
allocations, since “[t]he division of property rarely gives rise
to this level of deeply emotional conflict . . . .” 304 While
recognizing that “some properties are unique and personally
meaningful,” 305 the court nonetheless suggested that in most
cases “a decision to award particular property to a party
generally can be considered to be a decision that is
ultimately measured in monetary (or equivalent) value.” 306
But the court cautioned that “the contractual right to direct
the disposition of embryos cannot reasonably be viewed that
way . . . .” 307 Precisely because the right to direct the
disposition of the embryos could not reasonably be
monetized, Oregon “case law controlling the just and proper
distribution of property in a marital dissolution
proceedingall of which addresses the distribution of
property to which some sort of monetary value can be
ascribedoffers little assistance in [the] task here.” 308 The
court then looked to legal authority from elsewhere. 309
The difficulty with the approach adopted by the Oregon
court was not in considering cases from other jurisdictions,
but in thinking that those cases would be helpful in
addressing the particular issue of concern before the Oregon
court. None of the other jurisdictions had characterized the
right to control the disposition of the embryos as property
that was subject to a just and proper distribution, so it
would be surprising were their analyses helpful on that
point. Indeed, precisely because the other jurisdictions had
not considered what would constitute a just and proper
302. Id.
303. Id. at 839.
304. Id.
305. Id.
306. Id.
307. Id.
308. Id.
309. Id.
2009]
AWARDING EMBRYOS UPON DIVORCE
1221
distribution, it is not surprising that there was no
discussion in the other cases that spoke to this issue.
The case that came closest to offering a relevant
discussion was Davis, where the Tennessee Supreme Court
found that the embryos were neither “‘persons’ or ‘property,’
but occupy an interim category that entitles them to special
respect” 310 and that the progenitors had an “interest in the
nature of ownership.” 311 However, the Davis court refused
even to consider how these ownership interests might be
distributed most equitably. Instead, the court favored the
right not to be a parent where there had been no initial
agreement covering the circumstances at hand. 312
Were a court to try to address what would constitute a
fair distribution, one of the first questions would be whether
at issue was the right to control the disposition of all of the
embryos or, instead, whether several rights were at issue,
each of which would involve control over an individual
embryo. Were it conceptualized as the right to control the
disposition of all of the embryos, then it is not clear how this
property could be distributed justly. Perhaps a court would
adopt the Witten waiting approach and suggest that because
each party would have the right to control the disposition of
all of the embryos, nothing could be done absent an
agreement by the parties with respect to the course of action
to be taken.
Such a disposition would require that the status quo be
maintained indefinitely, because neither could dispose of
the property without the other’s consent. This non-divisible
right to control the disposition of all of the embryos might
be likened to property held in tenancy by the entireties,
where each member of a couple has an undivided interest in
the property as a whole. 313
310. Davis v. Davis, 842 S.W.2d 588, 597 (Tenn. 1992).
311. Id.
312. See supra notes 80-95 and accompanying text.
313. See Wehrheim v. Brent, 894 S.W.2d 227, 228-29 (Mo. Ct. App. 1995)
(“Where property is owned in tenancy by the entireties, each spouse is seized of
the whole or entirety and not of a share or divisible part. Each spouse owns an
undivided interest in the whole of the property and no separate interest.” (citing
Stafford v. McCarthy, 825 S.W.2d 650, 656 (Mo. Ct. App. 1992))); Smith v.
Smith, No. M2004-00257-COA-R3-CV, 2005 WL 3132370, at *5 (Tenn. Ct. App.
Nov. 22, 2005) (“In a tenancy by the entireties, each spouse is considered to be
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Yet, it might be noted that a tenancy by the entireties
will be dissolved upon divorce, and the property will be
distributed fairly in accord with local law. 314 Perhaps, then,
the right to control all of the embryos should be modified so
that a fair distribution can be achieved. However, it would
be quite unclear what a fair distribution would look like.
Suppose that there were an even number of embryos.
Should they be divided up evenly? Even were it clear that
this would be the fairest distribution of the remaining
embryos if they were all of the same quality, a more difficult
assessment would be necessary were the embryos to vary in
quality. 315 For example, suppose that certain embryos, if
implanted, would be more likely to result in a live birth.
Who should get those?
Consider two progenitors, one asserting the right to be a
parent and the other asserting the right not to be a parent.
Each would claim that it was imperative that he or she
receive the highest quality embryos so as to maximize the
likelihood that he or she would (or would not) become a
parent. If the right to be a parent and the right not to be a
parent are of equal constitutional weight, then perhaps
those rights cancel each other out and the progenitors
should be treated equally—the embryos of highest quality
should be distributed equally. Of course, there would be
other ways to understand what was fairest, depending on
whether (1) the individual seeking control of the embryos
wanted to use them herself or donate them to someone else
the owner of the entire property rather than of a share or a divisible part of it.”
(citing Grahl v. Davis, 971 S.W.2d 373, 378 (Tenn. 1998))).
314. See, for example, In re Hope, where the court explained:
The disposition of tenancy by the entireties property upon a divorce is
governed by D.C. Code Ann. § 16-910 (1981). As relevant here, unless
the parties had entered into “a valid . . . agreement . . . disposing [of] the
property,” upon the entry of a final decree of divorce the court would
have been required, under § 16-910(b), to distribute tenancy by the
entireties property “in a manner that is equitable, just and reasonable,
after considering all relevant factors.”
231 B.R. 403, 413 (Bankr. D.D.C. 1999).
315. Cf. Marvin F. Milich, In Vitro Fertilization and Embryo Transfer: Medical
Technology + Social Values = Legislative Solutions, 30 J. FAM. L. 875, 879 (1991)
(“[S]cientists have learned that in the IVF procedure, as in natural
reproduction, embryos with serious chromosomal abnormalities are weeded out
by natural selection, usually within the first eight weeks of pregnancy.”).
2009]
AWARDING EMBRYOS UPON DIVORCE
1223
or if (2) the individuals seeking the embryos had other ways
of becoming a genetic parent, etc.
Even were the embryos to be distributed equally
because, for example, each of the progenitors wanted to
implant the embryos, the quality of the embryos might not
be particularly accommodating. Suppose, for example, that
the quality of the differing embryos were to fall along a
continuum, one being very good, two being good, three being
fair, etcetera. It might be very difficult to assess whether,
for example, one very good embryo should be treated as the
equivalent of two good ones or, perhaps, three fair ones.
The above discussion of fairness does not take into
account any initial understandings of the parties. Even
were it possible to devise a fair method of distribution
where the parties had said absolutely nothing about what
they would want in the event of a divorce, 316 it is not at all
clear that such a system would be fair if it did not give effect
to the original expectations, needs, and hopes of the parties.
Presumably, the parties themselves would be better able to
judge their own needs and desires, especially when not
clouded by the emotions that might arise in the context of a
divorce. It is perhaps for this reason among others that the
Dahl court concluded that “the general framework set forth
by the courts in Davis and Kass, in which courts give effect
to the progenitors’ intent by enforcing the progenitors’
advance directive regarding the embryos, is persuasive.” 317
Precisely because of the difficulties in assessing the value of
the right to control the disposition of the embryos and in
discerning what would be a just distribution of those rights,
the least unfair approach would be to rule in light of the
considered and informed wishes of the progenitors that had
been stated before the possible difficulties associated with
divorce clouded matters even further.
CONCLUSION
Several courts have been asked to resolve disputes
about the control of frozen embryos upon divorce.
Differences among the factual settings notwithstanding,
316. The Davis court attempted to achieve a result that it believed fair where
there were no provisions upon the event of divorce. See Davis, 842 S.W.2d at
603-04.
317. In re Marriage of Dahl, 194 P.3d 834, 840 (Or. Ct. App. 2008).
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there have been two noteworthy similarities among the
opinions. First, none of the courts awarded the embryos to
someone seeking to have them implanted—indeed, in
Litowitz, where the individuals were contesting who would
be allowed to implant the embryos rather than whether
they would be implanted at all, the Washington Supreme
Court nonetheless ordered the embryos destroyed. Second,
many of the opinions were not well-reasoned, reaching
results either by ignoring or mischaracterizing factors that
would have led to a contrary conclusion.
The courts’ reluctance to deal directly with the
implicated issues is unsurprising. There is no clearly correct
answer, and any disposition is likely to result in severe
disappointment for someone. Nonetheless, as a matter of
public policy and fundamental fairness, certain ways of
resolving these disputes are preferable to others.
Couples entering into an IVF program may well have
been trying to conceive for years. They may be desperate.
Further, they may not be able to anticipate all of the
potential difficulties that they will face. Nonetheless, they
are working together to achieve a long-sought goal and are
not adversaries. Statements made at this time are
presumably more likely to reflect the parties’ wishes,
desires, and values than would the statements made during
or in anticipation of a possibly contentious divorce.
Several supreme courts have emphasized that parties
may well not know how they will feel in the future and thus
initial agreements regarding the disposition of embryos
should not be given effect. But the inability to predict the
future does not preclude the enforcement of other kinds of
agreements, for example, prenuptial agreements.
While it might be pointed out that prenuptials are
limited in scope and cannot, for example, specify who will
have custody of any children born of the marriage, 318 that is
precisely because such an agreement would not give
adequate weight to the interests of the child. But in most if
not all cases, it makes no sense to justify the refusal to
318. See Edwardson v. Edwardson, 798 S.W.2d 941, 946 (Ky. 1990) (“While it
may go without saying, we observe that antenuptial agreements may apply only
to disposition of property and maintenance. Questions of child support, child
custody and visitation are not subject to such agreements . . . .”).
2009]
AWARDING EMBRYOS UPON DIVORCE
1225
permit embryo implantation by appealing to the interests of
the child that might thereby come into existence.
Courts using the contemporaneous consent model give
each progenitor a powerful bargaining chip at a time when
individuals might very well be tempted to punish their
soon-to-be ex-spouses. As a matter of public policy, this
makes no sense and may invite individuals to hold hostage
their ex-partner’s ability to parent a biologically related
child in order to punish or to gain other advantages.
It seems reasonable to believe that some individuals
would never want to bring a child into this world to be
parented by someone else. Indeed, they might well have
initially entered into an IVF program based on the
assurance that this would never happen. To require such
individuals to become genetic parents might well induce
them never even to try to become parents, to the detriment
of themselves, their would-be children, and society itself.
Yet, for others, it seems clear that being a genetic parent of
a child raised by others would not only not be a harm but
might be a positive good. The individuals themselves would
best be able to determine how they feel.
While individuals may change their minds over time,
members of the couple can agree to modify their agreement
to take account of their changing views. Suppose, however,
that both members of the couple cannot agree about the
changes that should be made to the agreement. It is then at
least tempting to say that, for example, an individual can
choose post-divorce not to have any connection with any
children born, even if that person is not allowed to change
the agreement so as to block the use of the embryos.
Asking courts to devise a fair distribution of remaining
embryos may simply be too difficult even when there has
been no prior agreement because, for example, the
remaining embryos differ in quality. But asking courts to
devise a fair distribution notwithstanding the prior
agreement is to impose an even more difficult task; so this
method should not be adopted. But what is even worse than
the fair distribution model is to give a possibly antagonized
ex-spouse the power to either block parentage or to name
the price that potential parentage will cost. While the
enforcement of initial agreements is not without its
drawbacks, for example, because of the difficulties involved
in foreseeing both what will happen and how one will feel in
the future, it is immensely preferable to the other possible
methods of distribution currently discussed.